By Ibrahim Hassan-Wuyo

KADUNA — No fewer than 2,143 grain farmers in Kaduna State have appealed to the Federal Government for urgent intervention through free or subsidised farm inputs after recording losses estimated at over ₦10.16 billion during the 2025 farming season.

The farmers, drawn from the state’s three senatorial districts, said they were pushed to the brink by a sharp nationwide crash in maize prices, despite unprecedented increases in the cost of fertiliser and other agricultural inputs.

Their appeal was contained in a letter addressed to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the Minister of Agriculture, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the three Kaduna State senators at the National Assembly. The letter was written through their counsel, Barrister Ehizogie Fidelis Imadojemu.

According to the farmers, they operate under a maize farming scheme coordinated by Alhaji Rufai Muazu Dikko, popularly known as Sarkin Labar, but were unable to recover production costs after harvest.

The scheme, which began in 2017 with about 1,000 hectares, has expanded to roughly 10,000 hectares, cultivated by 2,143 farmers across Igabi, Soba, Kauru, Zaria and Sabon Gari local government areas of Kaduna State. Under the arrangement, Sarkin Labar provides capital, farm inputs and logistics, while farmers repay him in maize after harvest and sell the balance for income.

However, the 2025 season proved disastrous. The farmers disclosed that a 50kg bag of NPK fertiliser sold for about ₦60,000, while urea rose to ₦50,000 per bag, pushing the cost of cultivating one hectare of maize to over ₦2 million, compared to about ₦1 million in the previous year.

With an average yield of 45 bags of 100kg per hectare, the farmers said each bag needed to sell for about ₦44,578 to break even. Instead, market prices crashed to around ₦22,000 per 100kg bag, resulting in a loss of ₦22,577 per bag.

From an estimated 450,000 bags harvested across the 10,000 hectares, the farmers calculated total losses of more than ₦10.16 billion.

“With these losses, the farmers cannot afford the cost of farming next season,” the letter stated, warning that the situation reflects a broader crisis confronting maize farmers nationwide.

The farmers cautioned that without urgent intervention, many producers—particularly in northern Nigeria—may abandon farming in the 2026 season, a development they said could undermine the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration’s food security agenda.

They are therefore seeking a bailout through the CBN, specifically requesting free or heavily subsidised inputs such as fertiliser and urea for the 2026 farming season. In return, they proposed to reimburse the Federal Government with maize equivalent to part of the value of the inputs at the end of the season.

According to them, such an intervention would stabilise grain production, boost food availability and deliver both economic and political dividends ahead of the 2027 general elections.

“Only by this arrangement will our clients and many other grain farmers around the country return to their farms in the 2026 farming season,” the letter added.

The farmers also requested an urgent meeting with relevant government officials, noting that preparations for the next planting season would soon begin.