Yobe sells fertilizer for N3,000
Yobe State Government has launched the sales of 8,640 metric tons of NPK fertilizer to farmers for N3,000 per bag.
Speaking in Damaturu yesterday at the flag-off of fertilizer sales for the 2018 cropping season, Governor Ibrahim Geidam said this was to achieve self-sufficiency in food production and diversification.
He said that the 8,460 metric tonnes of fertilizer(NPK 15;15) was procured at the cost of N1,468,800 to be distributed across the 17 local government areas of the state.
Gaidam said that, having suffered from the challenges of Boko Haram insurgency, it was significant to provide the farmers with the fertilizer at 65 percent discount to enhance productivity.
“In view of the fact that our state has over 75 percent of its population engaging in agriculture, a cultivatable land of about 1,096,553 hectares out of which it has over 366,000 hectares of Fadama land 765km of rivers, tributaries, flood plains, and a lake” he said.
The governor said his administration had spent almost N2 billion to develop over 5,000 hectares of land for irrigation at Jakusko, Boloram, Mugura and Nguru lake with expected target of employing over 10,000 youths into the scheme.
“Our vision is to provide the necessary enabling environment for the the development of agriculture through irrigation so that gradually 1,000 hectares to 1,500 hectares of irrigable land would be effectively developed at various locations in the state.
“It’s envisaged that wheat, rice and maize among others will be cultivated in a circle at each scheme spread over three cropping period in a year”, he said. Though the price of fertilizer has gone up, but due to our commitment to the promotion of agricultural activities in our dear state, we have resolved to approved the selling of bag of fertilizer at a subsidized rate of N3,000.00 per bag,” he said.