Rural farmer in Borno have urged the State Government on the need to provide them subsidized fertilizer to boost thier farming activities.
The farmers mostly from southern part of the state lamented the non provision of the comodity on time as done in other states, a development they said would affect bumper harvest and other activities this cropping season.
A cross section of the farmers who spoke to newsmen said its sad that July had lapsed without them getting the subsidized comodity from government while they could not access the ones in open market due to high cost of the comodity.
Amos Ali, Abdu Isa and Fali Adam who are small scale farmers said their hope for bumper harvest had been dashed without government subsidized fertilizer.
Another farmer, Yusuf Inuwa urged Gov. Babagana Zulum who flagged off the distribution of agricultural inputs in northern part of the state to 500 dry season farmers in Monguno to extend such gesture to farmers in southern part of the state.
A retired civil servant now a farmer who spoke under under condition of anonymity said that the agricultural sector under Zulum has a lot to do for the much needed transformation in the sector in addressing food security.
Mohammed Kolo, a farmer in Damboa Local Government Area said things were hard in southern Borno as tractors were not deployed to the area.
“It is unfortunate, even hiring of tractors remained inaccessible to farmers in Southern Borno, due to refusal of the government to deploy tractors to the area during the cultivation period.
“This is even as Borno State Government under the leadership of the former governor, Senator Kashim Shettima claimed procurement of thousands of tractors, but were nowhere to be found,” he lamented.
Meanwhile, a bag of 50kg NPK and Urea is being sold between N20,000 to N24,000 at the open market depending on the location when compared to last year when the commodity was bought at less than N10,000 per bag.
The Commissioner of Agriculture, Bunu Mustapha who newly assumed duty office was not in office and did not pick his calls to response on government position on the matter.
