‘I will sell fertiliser at N1,000 to farmers till I leave office’

We are aware that over 80% of the people of Zamfara State are farmers. How do you plan to enhance farming activities in the state?Since my assumption of office as the Executive Governor of Zamfara State, I promised to support the agricultural sector knowing full well that over 90% of the people of Zamfara State […]

We are aware that over 80% of the people of Zamfara State are farmers. How do you plan to enhance farming activities in the state?
Since my assumption of office as the Executive Governor of Zamfara State, I promised to support the agricultural sector knowing full well that over 90% of the people of Zamfara State live on farming and they cannot do without farming. In the days of Senator Ahmed Sani Yarima as the governor of the state, he introduced some agricultural policies and programmes in the like the Zamfara State Comprehensive Agricultural Development Programme and that programme has paid a lot. Unfortunately, when his predecessor took over, he could not continue with those laudable initiatives. When I came in, I looked at the programme critically and realised that it is the best way of enhancing agricultural production, empowering the farmers to easily access agricultural loan, get modern farming techniques that will improve their production capacity by improving on yield from the same farmland. It is government that is making fertiliser issue to look like something too difficult for the farmer to access. The way the government is recycling the supply and distribution of fertilizer in this country is not helping matters. Government will order for 300,000 metric tonnes of fertilizer, for example, but only 6,000 metric tonnes will be supplied and is that same quantity they will be taking from one state to another, deceiving unsuspecting farmers. For several years now, you have the same contractors handling fertiliser supply as a syndicate with only policy names changing from one administration to the other.
What have you done to change the system in your state?
When I came, I told the people of the state that I am aware you cannot live without farming. So, I totally subsidised the cost of all agricultural inputs in the state and also made them available and affordable to everyone. I subsidised the cost of herbicides, fertiliser, seeds, equipment and everything that the farmers needed for their farming activity I directed that every farmer in the state should be provided with enough fertilizer at N1, 000 per bag. The smallholder farmers that require 10, 20 bags should be given. The big time farmers were given from 50 bags upward. You will discover that even if the big farmer require more than what we gave him, what he will buy from the market was just a few more bags. Both big and small farmers got their supply at N1, 000 per bag.
What effort are you making to ensure that fertiliser gets to the local farmers in the villages?
We have set up committees to collect the supplies of each polling unit and ensure that it gets to the farmers there. It is the responsibility of the committee to ensure that the farmers are supplied and so far so good, they have been trying. So, we have succeeded to a reasonable extent in preventing diversion of farming inputs in the state. Other inputs are distributed the same way by the committees. We have consulted the Department of Institute of Agricultural Research of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria to redesign the Zamfara State Comprehensive Agricultural Development Programme that we intend to revive very soon. There are so many issues I am trying to clear in that agency before we revive it. I inherited records indicating that farmers have not paid government over N5 billion outstanding bills. The agency was earlier designed to serve as a source of providing farmers in the state with tractors, fertiliser, inputs and equipment which the farmers will pay back with crops after harvest. We have to find out where the problem emanated from. What is certain for now is there is about N6 billion outstanding that farmers did not pay. Our target is to ensure that farmers are counted among the rich people in the society. I am of the opinion that giving farmer agricultural loan without interest is not the solution to his problem. What will he do if he collects the loan and experiences flood or draught that year or any other natural disaster occurs? So, the experts will look at all those things and come up with a realistic way the farmer will be supported and protected. By the will of God, we shall come up with a brand new plan that will move agriculture forward in Zamfara State. I noticed something during Yarima’s administration. Before he became the governor of the state, there were farmlands where the farmers were cultivating only one tonne. But shortly after he introduced new farming programmes in the state, such farms started yielding 5 to 6 tonnes. So, we intend to educate our farmers on modern farming techniques. We shall take the statistics of the number of hectares every farmer has, the crop he is producing, we shall provide fertilizer, tractor and give them working capital. After harvest you give part of your crop as part payment for the loan. After harvest, when a rice farmer wants to give government some bags of rice as part payment for the loan he collected, we shall check the price of bag of rice in the market. If it is N2, 000 per bag in the market, we shall collect it at N4, 000 per bag just to encourage the farmer. We are working towards so many ways of helping our farmers to grow.
Farming is still largely done by the aged in the society. How do you intend to encourage the youths to go into farming?
So many things need to be done to achieve that. We need to include farming as a compulsory subject in our curriculum of education. There is need to overhaul the entire school syllabus to accommodate the current needs of our nation. Our schools are not too serious in teaching agriculture. Where they do, very few students attend agric classes. So, when unemployment became an issue in the country, youths were not seeing agriculture as a business they could venture into because they do not have any knowledge about it. On the average, youths see farming as the job of illiterate villagers. Making it a compulsory lesson in the school will increase youth interest in agriculture as a business. Agriculture as a major employer of labour is there full of opportunities while the youths are there crying of not being employed by government, leaving the farming opportunity to waste away. How many people can the government employ? The system has changed and so we should start teaching the youths right from the primary schools how not to depend solely on government. Youths should be taught to know much about self dependence and how to develop the private sector. Agriculture is not the only alternative but because it has a value chain from the farm to the market, then to the factory and back to the market it can employ so many.