The Borno Government has announced a ban on the sale of fertilizer in markets across the state, to check the diversion of the commodity by officials.
The Deputy Governor of the state, Alhaji Mustapha Zanna, announced the ban on Sunday at a ceremony to launch sale of fertilizer for this year’s cropping season in Biu, Headquarters of the Biu Local Government Area.
Zanna explained that the goal of the ban was to ensure that government’s fertilisers were not diverted to the black market.
He said that government had directed law enforcement agents to ensure strict compliance with the order.
“Government will no longer tolerate diversion of fertilizer to the black market as the practice had prevented genuine farmers from getting the commodity.
“Security agents should arrest anybody found selling fertilizer in the black market as it is a crime.”
He said that government had devised a new system of fertilizer distribution to ensure that the commodity were received by farmers at the grassroots.
“Under the new distribution system, each ward in every Local Government Area will be allocated a certain number of fertilizer.
“We are going to adhere strictly to this system to ensure that fertilizer are not diverted at the distribution points.”
He said that government had procured about one billion naira worth of fertilizer for distribution to farmers at 50 per cent subsidy.
“We have procured 10,000 metric tones of fertilizer for distribution to farmers for the farming season. This is in addition to the remaining stock for last year’s season.”
He said that a 50 kg bag of NPK fertilizer would be sold at N2,500 while a 50 kg bag of Urea fertilizer would go for N2,400.
Zanna directed officials of the state’s ministries of agriculture and local government affairs to monitor the distribution of the commodity to farmers.
Also speaking, the Commissioner of Agriculture, Alhaji Usman Zanna, said that government had procured improved seed varieties and chemicals worth N37 million for distribution to farmers for free.
“Highly improved seed varieties and agro-chemicals worth N37 million have been procured for distribution to farmers for free,” Zanna said.
