Why Yobe opted out of GES

With the rainy season already here, people would want to know what the state government is doing to boost agriculture in the state?We express our appreciation to Allah the Most Merciful for bringing peace to Yobe at this period, and that has given the governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Gaidam an opportunity to provide farmers in the […]

With the rainy season already here, people would want to know what the state government is doing to boost agriculture in the state?
We express our appreciation to Allah the Most Merciful for bringing peace to Yobe at this period, and that has given the governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Gaidam an opportunity to provide farmers in the state with the necessary inputs for bumper harvest. Bearing in mind that over 80 percent of Yobe people are farmers, coupled with the growth in population in this country especially in the northern part where people marry more than one wife – with some having two, three or four wives that bear children almost every year – This made our population growth far more than any other region in Nigeria.
Then we noticed that our farmlands are overstretched and overused by farmers, thereby fertilizer requirement become eminent. That is why  the governor procured fertilizer which is being distributed to farmers across the state.
Apart from fertilizer, has the government provided the farmers with any other input?
Of course yes. The fertilizer is just one aspect that the state spent huge amount on, we provide farmers with chemicals and pesticides for the control of pests, improved seeds, tractors, free extension services to mention but a few.
With the present security challenges, how do you reach farmers and distribute the inputs to them?
God in his infinite mercy has made this year very peaceful. People are doing their daily businesses without fear of being attacked, and farmers in the remotest villages access their farmlands freely. That has made the government feels it is important to invest in their farms.  
Under the 2013 cropping season, the governor approved the distribution of 53,400 bags of fertilizer to the 17 local government areas of the state. That is, each of the 185 wards in the state is allocated 150 bags of Urea and 150 bags of NPK, making 300 bags. This is just for the wards, apart from civil servants that cut across state, federal and local governments that were allocated 33,840 bags because, now that farming is a business even the civil servants practice it.
We also allocated to large scale farmers, those that apply more than 70 to 100 bags of fertilizer in their farms. We group them and allocated 60,000 bags to them. There were individuals deeply involved in agriculture and because of their seriousness in farming, we put them under a group and allocated 18,000 bags to them. So, from the beginning of 2013 cropping season the state government had distributed 166, 990 bags which is equivalent of 278.3 trucks at a subsidy of N2,500 per bag only, giving a discount of over 70 percent on the initial cost of procurement to the farmers, bearing in mind that Yobe State has a large number of farmers as earlier mentioned.
There is allegation that the state government has for some political reasons, deliberately refused to pay its counterpart funds for the Federal Government Growth Enhancement Scheme (GES) where farmers in the state will access subsidized fertilizer and free improved seeds. What could be responsible for that?
No, you know initially the federal government allocated fertilizers to state governments based on requirements, you will be asked to go and obtain fertilizer from Funtua, Kaduna, Port Harcourt or even Lagos. Then the money would be deducted from the state government’s allocation. That is from the source, and the state government will give subsidy again before distributing them to farmers.
Last year, in 2012, the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, introduced the Growth Enhancement Scheme (GES), under which data forms were given to states. In Yobe, we were given 148,000 forms to register 148,000 farmers. Still under that scheme, each farmer is expected to get two bags of fertilizer, of which he will pay 50 percent while the remaining 50 percent will be paid by state and federal governments in an equal share. That year, we relied totally on the Grows Enhancement Scheme (GES) but the federal government was not able to procure the fertilizer for farmers in the state. The people cried out as they could not get the commodity.
As I earlier mentioned, due to growth in population, the pattern of shifting cultivation is no longer in practice. The crops we are growing here in the northern part are mostly cereals. The requirement for fertilizer update is high compared to the southern states where they grow small piece of land that a bag or two can accommodate their crops. But here we have vast land and the rain pattern differs.
Therefore, two bags cannot augment the requirement of our farmers. Also last year, we participated in the Growth Enhancement Scheme GES. Yobe State government paid N50 million as its subsidy under the GES of the federal government but at the end, serious complaints were received from farmers. Some of the farmers refused to collect the two bags saying it is highly inadequate.
Therefore, the state government decided, based on recommendations by experts from the Ministry of Agriculture, that we procure fertilizer ourselves where we will give a minimum of three, four, 10 up to a 100 truck load depending upon the capacity of the farmer. That is why the governor procured enough fertilizer for this season for Yobe farmers at 70 percent discount to avoid a repeat of the shortage encountered last year. The state government decided to quit the GES since our farmers’ demands were not satisfied.
And I want to make a clarification here, GES is a federal government programme where suppliers appoint their agro dealers per redemption centres, and the suppliers give the fertilizer to those agro dealers on a price where the farmer will pay the 50 percent discount. But in Yobe it was not so. Contrary to the general practice on the GES support in every other state, the Minister of State for Finance who is from this state has indulged himself into the system, making claims on the GES fertilizer, that are not true, and that has indicted the suppliers.
I think I have to call the attention of the suppliers to tell the minister that the GES programme is not his own property. It is a property under a scheme where companies are free to market their products in the market and the federal and state governments will jointly fund the 50 percent as we did in 2012. But unfortunately, after we paid the N50 million last year under the GES and the Federal Government too paid the same amount as its counterpart funding, the Minister of State for Finance was saying that the fertilizer was his own. If that is the case, the Minister of State for Agriculture, Dr Bukar could have claimed the same in Borno State. That is why we decided to procure enough fertilizer of our own giving a subsidy of 70 percent to our farmers.