Nigerian government is to distrubte among farmers the 33,000 tonnes of Potash from Uralchem Group in Russia and its United Nations partners.
The distribution of the fertiliser is expected to crash the price of the commodity by 50 per cent according to Vice-President Kashim Shettima who says the government is very passionate about reducing the cost of fertilizers for Nigerian farmers in the overall interest of achieving food security in the country
At a meeting with Fertilizers Producers and Suppliers Association of Nigeria (FEPSAN), Shettima said “our goal is to serve the Nigerian people. No strings attached, no vested interest and the President will be happy if the price of fertilizers collapses by 50 percent after this exercise”
Vice President Shettima disclosed that President Bola Tinubu gives high premium to achieving the agenda of food security in the country, noting that this accounts for the declaration of state of emergency in food security sector by the Tinubu administration last July.
“We have many challenges with food security in the country, we are however very lucky because the President is very empathetic and very passionate about achieving food sufficiency in the country.”
The VP charged the stakeholders, who included the Minister of Agriculture, Sen. Abubakar Kyari and Minister of State for Agriculture, Sen. Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, on the seriousness attached to the donation and distribution of the potash from Uralchem Group.
“There has to be transparency, equity and fairness in the distribution exercise for the reason that the end beneficiaries are the Nigerian farmers and their leadership is seated here”, he stated.
The Vice President assured stakeholders “that there will be transparency, there will be full disclosure and we are going to use our own blenders and the beneficiaries have to be the Nigerian people.”
On the entire exercise, Vice President Shettima disclosed further that the NEMA, World Food Programme (WFP) and AFEX, a commodity Exchange firm have the data base and other requirements that will assist the Federal Government in reaching out to the farmers in conjunction with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security driving the process.
The leadership of Uralchem Group and WFP at the last Russia-Africa Summit in St. Petersburg Russia last July met with the Federal Government delegation over the donation of a consignment of 33,000 metric tonnes of potash.
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