The Plateau State Government has acquired 500 truckloads of fertiliser for distribution to farmers across the state under a subsidy programme aimed at boosting agricultural production and enhancing food security.
Governor Caleb Mutfwang announced the intervention on Friday in Jos during the official launch of fertiliser sales for the current farming season.
As part of the initiative, the governor approved the sale of fertiliser to farmers at a subsidised price of N20,000 per bag.
He explained that the measure was designed to ease farmers’ production costs and strengthen food production efforts across the state.
Mutfwang noted that the fertiliser purchase was funded with public resources and reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to implementing programmes that respond to the needs and expectations of citizens.
His words: “This is why I approved the reduction in the price of the fertiliser to N20,000, because we want to make sure that everybody has access to this essential product.
“This is also a way of compensating our farmers for the loss they suffered last year, because last year the prices of foodstuffs went down drastically.
“Therefore, I have the honour and the pleasure to officially inaugurate the sale of fertiliser for this season for the benefit of the people who live and farm on the Plateau.”
The governor further assured farmers that the state government would purchase farm produce directly from them after harvest to protect them from exploitation in the marketplace and ensure better returns on their investments.
“By the grace of God, we have made arrangements that this year we will buy whatever our farmers harvest from their farms, so that they will not be molested in the market by middlemen,” he said.
Earlier, the Commissioner for Agriculture, Samson Bugama, assured the governor that measures had been put in place to ensure that the fertiliser reached duly registered farmers across the state.
Bugama explained that the distribution process had been digitised to improve transparency and accountability, adding that 18 collection centres had been established in different parts of the state to facilitate easy access to the product by beneficiaries.
