Fertiliser access: Plateau farmers resort to animal dung
As the rains commence fully in most parts of Plateau State, thereby ushering in the planting season and farm land cultivation, farmers are full of expectations for a bountiful harvest.
Subsequently, they have been putting in their best in cultivating their seedbeds and planting varied crops. However, for the crops to germinate well and bring forth the expected yield at harvest time, the farmers need to boost the plants with organic or natural substances.
The prevailing input in this regard has always been fertilizer and due to its importance, the state government has always involved in fertiliser distribution to the farmers. They purchase it in large quantities and then distribute to farmers at subsidized rate. This has always been the yearly routine. However, it sometimes comes with hitches as a result of diversion on the part of government officials, the unhealthy activities of middlemen and even the unfortunate attitude of the farmers themselves.
This year, farmers on the Plateau said they have resorted to the use of animal dung to boost their crops as a result of their inability to access fertiliser which ought to have been sold to them by the government at subsidized rate.
This is despite the fact that the state government just flagged off the sale of fertilizers to farmers in Kanam Local Government Area of the state, few weeks ago.
Speaking at the flag off ceremony, Governor Simon Lalong, called on all farmers in the state to jealously guard and protect the fertilizers distributed to them at subsidized rate, and to report any sharp practice by middlemen who buy the fertilizers at subsidized rate only to resell it at exorbitant prices.
The governor said his government desires agricultural development and will not tolerate anything that will truncate their efforts in that regard.
But despite the flag off of the fertiliser sales to farmers in the state, mant of the farmers said they were yet to get access to the commodity, and those who spoke to Daily Trust said they couldn’t wait any longer as the planting period is fast winding down. Hence, they have resorted to using animal dung to boost their crop yield.
Others said they have never gotten access to government fertiliser, but buy small quantities from the market to apply to their crops.
Dayyib Zachariah Adam, 58, a farmer with 15 children and two wives,
said they needed to urgently resort to animal dung to boost their crop production since they haven’t been able to access the government fertilizer.
Adam, chairman of the Farmers Association in Gangare Ward of Jos, the Plateau State capital, said they only heard of the flag off on radio, and so they cannot count on it and continue waiting while the planning season occasioned by the commencement of the rains is quickly winding down.
“We heard on radio that the fertilizer sale and distribution to farmers in the state has been flagged off. But we are yet to get it, and no one has called me on how to get it. However, the arrangement of how we normally get it previously is via several ways. But this year we are yet to get it, not even through any of the former ways.
“When the fertilisers are purchased by government, the officials normally call us and we go and get it and thereafter we distribute accordingly.
“But as I said, this year, we are yet to see the fertilizers even though government said it has flagged off the sales. Since we have not seen the fertiliser from the government and time is going because the rains have commenced and the planting season is fast winding down, we turned to using animal dung to boost our crops. We use dung from cows and that of chicken. We go to where they sell cows and poultry to purchase the dung.
“In the case of cow dung, we often apply it on the soil before we cultivate the seedbeds, while in the case of chicken dung, we apply it directly on the crops when they shoot out from the soil. I have already applied 50 bags of cow dung on each of my two farms. We purchase each sack of the cow dung for N200, while we purchase that of the chicken for N300,’’ he said.
The chairman said sometimes they even prefer animal dung to chemical fertilisers because once it is applied in a given year, they would not have to apply it the following year. But in the case of fertiliser, they would have to be applying it yearly.
If one applies a bag of fertiliser to a particular portion of land to grow crops, the following year he will have to apply two bags on that same portion because chemical fertilizer drains the soil of its nutrients/fertility even if it boosts crop germination, he added.
“Apart from cows and chicken dung, we don’t often use that of other animals because they are not useful. For instance, before you use the dung of horse or donkey, you will have to burn it in order to be effective. Despite all these however, if we can still get the fertilizer we will appreciate because it’s combination with the animal dung to grow crops faster and better,” he added.
Another farmer, Sule Abubakar, 55, said since he started farming in the state, he has never gotten or bought any fertilizer provided by the government. He has been relying on animal dung.
He said he came from Zamfara State to farm in Plateau, pointing out that the farming situations are different, especially in terms of fertiliser distribution as he easily accessed the product in Zamfara as against Plateau where he has never gotten any nor understand the modalities for acquiring it.
Abubakar noted that he always buys fertiliser in small quantities and measurement from the market.
On the call to the government on fertiliser sale/distribution , Abubakar said he had nothing to say because as a peasant farmer and a ‘nobody’, there is nothing he will say that would make any difference in a system orchestrated by elitist policy makers who didn’t understand the plights of the grassroots farmers.
Anna Yakubu, 57, a retired staff of Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), decried the situation where fertiliser distribution by the government would not reach the actual farmers quickly until most of them would have gone to the market to purchase it in small quantities.
Yakubu said she has been farming from her childhood. She inherited the farm from her father, and would never stop farming.
Reacting, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to Governor Lalong, Mark Longyen, said the fertiliser sale was flagged off barely three weeks ago and it is still going round all the farmers.
Longyen explained that it’s not that if the fertiliser goes on sale, a farmer will come with his/her money to collect, but that there are processes to be followed.
According to him, some of the processes entail that a farmer should belong to a cooperative society, meet some requirements, truly own a farm and show evidence of such in order to avoid sharp practices by middlemen.
He said investigations have revealed that many who claim to be farmers and were lamenting lack of access to fertilizers were not really farmers.
Anyone can claim to be a farmer, thereby purchasing the fertilizer at the expense of the real farmers, he said.