Fertilizers: Farmers in Kano State lament high cost

Farmers in Kano State, Northern Nigeria, have lamented the high cost of fertilizers, saying many farmers could not plant in the 2022 farming season.

The farmers, however, lauded the World Bank assisted Covid-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus programme (CARES) input support for coming to the rescue, noting that the intervention would boost agricultural productivity as a means of attaining food sufficiency for the country.

The farmers, who benefited from the CARES input support initiative, stated this during an inspection visit by the CARES-project officials to some local government areas including Rano, Madobi, Bunkure, Gezawa, Minjibir and Kura to assess the programme’s achievements in Kano.

One of the beneficiaries at Rano local government area, Jamila Garba, noted that the intervention made farming easy and possible for her this season, while lauding the initiative.

“If not for this intervention, many of us will not plant crops due to the high cost of fertilisers,” she said.

On his part, a beneficiary from Madobi area, Abdullahi Umar, who received improved seeds and other inputs to enhance his productivity, described the intervention as timely and helpful.

“Farmers are faced with challenges of the high cost of fertilizers and other farm inputs.

“I urge the project to widen its scope to enable more farmers to benefit from the gesture,” said Umar.

In the same vein, the village head of Jigore in the Minjibir local government area, Mai-Unguwa Yahuza, said the rural road rehabilitation facilitated by the project was beneficial in linking up many communities.

According to him, the development made transportation of people, goods and farm produce from one place to another easy.

Meanwhile, the project coordinator, Rufa’i Halilu, disclosed that the Kano CARES project spent about N300 million on its farm input support component alone, explaining that the funds were expended on providing beneficiaries with solar-powered water pumping machines, power tillers, planters, fertilizers, insecticides, herbicides, sprayers, and improved seeds, among others.

Halilu disclosed that the input assistance benefited 980 poor farmers across the state.

Source: Agro Nigeria