Agriculture
SOME farmers in Enugu have appealed to the state government to provide them with fertilizers at subsidized rates.
Some of the farmers, who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Enugu, decried the delay in the fertiliser’s distribution to farmers in the state.
The farmers said that they were yet to get fertiliser from the state government.
They added that if the government could sell fertilisers to farmers at subsidized rates, it would go a long way to boost food production as there would be food surplus from the next harvesting season.
A yam farmer, Mr. Felix Azubike said that fertiliser subsidies had been one of the major policy instruments used to increase agricultural productivity.
According to Azubike, in order to create healthy crops full of nutrients, farmers need to be given fertiliser at subsidised rate.
Another farmer, Mr James Duru urged the state government to help farmers to get the necessary inputs they required to motivate them and increase food in the state.
“Obtaining fertiliser for our crops at the moment is difficult for some farmers, especially the farmers in rural areas as its price is not affordable by some of them,” he said.
Mrs Maria Nwankwo, a cassava farmer said that farmers had to turn to fertiliser because it enhanced the natural fertility of the soil and it replaced the chemical elements taken from the soil by previous crops.
“As farmers, we are in dare need of fertiliser for our crops to be healthy, so we are calling on the state government to begin the distribution of fertiliser because some of us cannot buy from the open market due its high price,” Nwakwo said.
She said that a bag of NKP fertiliser was now being sold between N8,000 and N11,000, adding the increase had made the commodity to be out of her reach. (NAN)
– May 29, 2020 @ 14:09 GMT |
Tags: Enugu farmers beg Ugwuanyi to provide fertiliser at subsidised rate
