Farmers across the 13 Local Government of Nasarawa State are being given free fertilizer donated by the Federal Government.
The free distribution exercise which is ongoing begun from the Southern Senatorial District of the State.
The State Governor, Engineer Abdullahi A. Sule while flagging off the distribution of the fertilizer to local farmers in Awe, announced that the distribution will cover all the one hundred and forty seven (147) electoral wards of the state.
He ceased the opportunity to charge officials and stakeholders across board to ensure that the farm inputs being provided gets to real farmers so as to boost productivity.
Engineer Sule who commenced the distribution of 50kg of NPK and Urea in Awe headquarters of Awe Local Government Area on Monday July 8th, 2024,assured farmers of his administration’s commitment to always fast track measures that will boost and improve yields in the state.

The Governor while speaking further noted that the fertilizer being distributed was provided through the federal government initiative which is predicated on helping local farmers achieve bumper yields at the end of the year for enhanced food security.
” The fertilizer you are seeing here today is a gesture from the federal government starting with Mr. President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Honourable Minister of Agriculture – who have decided that the CBN that has these fertilizer should actually allocate them to states who would give them to farmers to reduce the hardship in this country …
” In addition, we felt and I personally felt that we should quickly go to every local government area and distribute these fertilizer to farmers so that; they are not diverted to individuals who are not farmers. That is the reason why I decided to come here by myself”.
He noted that 100 farmers have been selected from each of the 147 electoral wards of the state as beneficiaries and that in each ward, the fertilizer will be shared in the ratio of 80 NPK to 20 Urea.

Speaking on how apt the distribution was considering the impact of the fertilizer to crops, the Governor noted that:
” We are so eager to begin the distribution exercise. This is the best time actually to share fertilizer to farmers. If this period elapse, it would not be as useful as it would be now “
The Governor appreciated President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari for making the fertilizer available free of charge out of which the state allocation is being currently distributed to farmers across the 13 LGA’s to improve food security.
“ After the allocation, of course, the state government incurred several other expenses for logistics, for loading, off loading, warehousing and the rest of that. In our own state, we took it as our responsibility towards making sure that farmers get free bags of fertilizers without paying anything for it ” He said.
Governor Sule equally used the opportunity of the exercise to inspect the ongoing construction of the new Awe modern market where he expressed displeasure over the slow pace of work, urging the contractor handling the project to speed up with a view to completing the project within the stipulated time.
While in Obi, headquarters of Obi Local Government Area, Governor Sule appealed to farmers in the area not to interfere with the progress of work on the 10,000 hectares of land being cultivated by the state government in line with the food security initiatives.

He assured the people that through the government farm, youths in the area will be employed to work on the farm to be used in cultivating rice, sesame and corn.
“ That is the support that I want to get from you as farmers. We will end up employing your children to work in that farm. We are not going to import anybody from anywhere to come and do that. It is your own people that will work on that farm …
“ By the time we carry out the harvest, it is still your people that will carry out the irrigation and also the harvesting”.
On how the 100 beneficiaries from each ward for the fertilizer distribution were selected, the Governor said the beneficiaries were chosen by a committee comprising of traditional rulers, state Assembly members and political appointees including commissioners and special advisers.

Governor Sule however emphasized that the beneficiaries were selected without considering their political, ethnic or religious inclinations, as the fertilizer is meant to be shared to farmers without any form of discrimination.
The Honourable Commissioners of Agriculture and Water Resources Abubakar Umar Dan-akano and that of Humanitarian Services and NGO’s Margaret Elayo all commended Engineer Abdullahi A. Sule for promoting farming activities in the state.
They lauded the Governor for acquiring 10 thousand hectares of land at Jangwa where rice had been planted and for providing tractors as well as seedlings to farmers in the state.