By; SANI ALIYU, Zaria
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security has said that it would address the alleged case of substandard fertilizer and other issues raised by wheat farmers at KADA Store, Kauran Juli, Zaria Kaduna State.
It would be recalled that federal government’s, National Agricultural Growth Scheme and Agro Pocket (NAGS –AP) Wheat Farmers beneficiaries protested over allegations of distributing substandard inputs by one of the approved dealer.
The farmers under the aegis of Galma Wheat Farmers Association, carried placards with inscriptions `We don’t want Iliyasawa Fertilizer’; `real wheat farmers should be considered’ among others.
The Minister of State, Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Aliyu-Sabi Abdullahi while addressing the protesting farmers, said that the situation at Zaria is entirely different from what was met at Makarfi and Ikara centres earlier visited.
He said government did give the exact brand name of the fertilizer to be distributed as such, the agro-dealer can distribute what is available in the market.
“However, most of the fertilizers in the market were approved by the relevant regulatory bodies before they became available in the market stores.
“We give assurance that `Iliyasawa fertilizer’ was certified to be good and it should be accepted as such,
“That notwithstanding, samples were taken from the fertilizer for further analysis at both the federal and state government laboratories to ascertain the veracity of your (farmers) claims,’’ Abdullahi said.
He therefore, urged them to exercise patience and await the results from the laboratories and assured that if it turns out to be bad, the government would not spare him.
In an interview with newsmen, the minister said he was in Kaduna State on the spot assessment for the distribution of subsidized inputs to dry season wheat farmers at Makarfi, Ikara and Zaria local government areas respectively.
He said at Zaria, there were two issues from the protesting farmers: the quality of fertilizer and number of people who were at redemption to redeem the inputs.
Abdullahi said farmers protested that many of them could not redeem their inputs.
“However, the minister said he has seen the problem and he would go back and get across to other stakeholders to salvage the situation,” he said.
He noted that wheat is very sensitive to weather and the time frame within which to plant is fast elapsing, that is why they pushed to see that more farmers were able to redeem the inputs.
The minister said the redemption of the inputs was absolutely fantastic at Ikara and Makarfi redemption centers.
However, Alhaji Muktar Gyallesu, Farm Leader for Tudun Wada, Gyallesu and Tudun Jukun areas in Zaria Local Government Area, said the specific fertilizer approved for the farmers was Urea (Indorama brand) and NPK 15:15:15 (matrix brand).
According to him, their Agro Dealer (Iliyasawa Fertilizer Ltd) was initially distributing the approved brand to the beneficiaries.
“Suddenly he changed to his own company NPK iliyasawa brand with ratio 15:10:10 and the real beneficiaries who earlier captured were not attended to by the dealer.
“ Non members who were not captured and did not have slip of the application forms, were attended by dealers and some agents bought inputs from them at an amount between N15,000 and N20,000, hence their protest,’’ Gyallesu said.
