By Henry Umoru

ABUJA—Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina disclosed yesterday that 92 per cent of Nigerian farmers now get fertilisers directly, just as he said the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, through its Agriculture Transformation Agenda has ended 40 years of corruption in the agricultural sector.

Akinwunmi Adesina

Speaking yesterday on the third day of the Public Affairs Forum of the Jonathan Administration organised by the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs in Abuja, he explained that transformation in the sector has witnessed a monumental change in the way agriculture and related activities were handled.

According to him, the ministry under the current arrangement has built a national database of 10.5 Million farmers, which has increased the participation in every state of the federation, adding that the Growth Enhancement Support Scheme (GES) programme has increased farmers who are now getting fertilizers from 11% before the programme to 92%. He pointed out that 1.3 million metric tons of fertilizer has been delivered to farmers.

Dr. Adesina said, “We ended 40 years of corruption in the fertilizer sector. The old system of government direct procurement and distribution of fertilizer was corrupt.

”Nearly 90% of farmers never received subsidized fertilizers. Between 1980 and 2010, over N873 Bln ($5.4bn) was spent on fertilizer subsidies. No more than 11% of farmers received these fertilizers. Over N776bn was estimated to have been lost to corruption or an average of N26bn annually.”

The system displaced the private sector.”

The Minister disclosed that 55,000 metric tons of improved seeds have been delivered to farmers pointing out that Nigeria is the first country in Africa to deliver inputs to farmers at scale through e-wallet.

He said that the country boasts of cassava both in quality and quantity,which informed the decision to embark on the cassava transformation initiative, which has led to the introduction of 20% cassava bread, as well as establishment of 30 bakeries across the country.

Dr. Adesina told the audience that in the area of rice cultivation, the ministry with the support of Bank of Industry and Bank of Agriculture, has come up with a rice revolution to make the country become self-sufficient in rice, which has led to the production of million metric tonnes of the commodity, adding that the investment has run into billions of naira.