Bauchi State government has attributed the shortage of fertiliser been experienced by farmers in the state to the inability of the Bauchi Fertiliser Blending Company to access chemicals used in producing the commodity.
The Permanent Secretary of the State Ministry of Agriculture, Dr Bala Musa Lukshi who stated this while speaking to newsmen in Bauchi on Tuesday said government is working tirelessly to address the shortage in all parts of the State .
“Unfortunately, the blending company don’t have fertilizer on ground, and you know the purchase and distribution of fertilizer is controlled by the Presidential initiative. They determine the price which is a fix rate. “The one you will buy at the company and even at the open market, is controlled by the Federal Government, but the chemicals required for fertilizer is being supplied to the company by the Federal Government and the company doesn’t have the materials to produce the commodity now”. He explained.
The Permanent Secretary who was responding to series of complains by farmers on the shortage of fertiliser across the state said, “the issue of fertilizer distribution is the backbone to agriculture. “Actually, we have distributed fertilizer to all the 20 local government areas of the state right from the time it was launched. “Initially the purchase of the commodity was very slow.”
According to him, “the local government areas exhausted what we have planned for them and we replenished what was exhausted, particularly in Dass , Bogoro and Ningi. “They exhausted their own immediately it was allocated to them compared to other local governments. “As I am talking to you, I just received a report this morning from the general manager of the Bauchi State Agricultural Supply Company (BASAC) that we have exhausted our fertilizer in the State, apart from that of Itas Gadau Local government which still has some balance”.
Dr. Lukshi said “even before that, as at Thursday last week when we sensed that we will run short of the commodity , I contacted the manager of the Bauchi state fertilizer Blending Company to tell him that we have money on the ground because His Excellency the Governor gave us money for reviving the scheme, so it’s not that there is no money to buy fertilizer that will be sold to the farmers, we have money on the ground.”
The Permanent secretary said he had last week, Friday informed the Secretary to State Government of the impending shortage of the fertiliser bearing in mind that the weeks ahead are critical weeks for the farmers to acquire fertilizer and that there was the need to procure the commodity for them.
“I told him that, Sir, we need fertilizer in the State. “This is the problem we are facing and he gave us orders that we should go to even outside the state to buy fertilizer, we have just concluded discussions with the manager of BASAC and I gave them the directives of the Secretary to the State Government to source fertilizer for farmers in the State”. Lukshi pointed out.
While expressing hope of getting the commodity on time, Lukshi said government is still discussing with the State Fertilizer company which is in contact with their Head office in Abuja.
