Fertiliser scarcity hits Bauchi

The Bauchi State Government has said it is working tirelessly to address the shortage of fertiliser being experience by farmers in all parts of the state. Permanent Secretary in the state Ministry of Agriculture, Dr. Bala Musa Lukshi, said this while answering questions from reporters as a result of series of complaints by farmers on […]

The Bauchi State Government has said it is working tirelessly to address the shortage of fertiliser being experience by farmers in all parts of the state.

Permanent Secretary in the state Ministry of Agriculture, Dr. Bala Musa Lukshi, said this while answering questions from reporters as a result of series of complaints by farmers on the shortage of the commodity across the state.

Dr. Lukshi said, “The issue of fertiliser distribution is the backbone to agriculture. Actually, we distributed fertiliser 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 and quite a number of the local government areas exhausted what we had planned for them and we replenished what was exhausted. Particularly, Dass, Bogoro and Ningi exhausted their own immediately it was given to them compared to other local governments. As I am talking to you, the report for today, this morning, which I received from the General Manager of the Bauchi State Agricultural Supply Company (BASAC) is that we have exhausted our fertiliser in the state, apart from in Itas Gadau Local Government Area. Itas Gadau still has some balance.

“Even before that, as at Thursday last week, we sensed that we would run short of the commodity. I contacted the Manager of the Bauchi State Fertiliser Blending Company and told them we had money on ground because governor gave us money for a revolving scheme. So it’s not that there is no money to buy fertiliser that will be sold to the farmers. Unfortunately, the blending company doesn’t have fertiliser on ground.

The permsec further said, “last Friday, I went to the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) and told him we were in a problem as the following weeks were critical for farmers to acquire fertiliser. He gave us order that we should go ‘even outside’ the state to buy fertiliser. We have just concluded discussions with the Manager of BASAC and I gave them the directive of the SSG.”

Dr. Lukshi, therefore, expressed hope of getting the commodity in time.