Enugu Govt plans to subsidise fertiliser for farmers

The Enugu State Ministry of Agriculture has concluded plans for early sale and distribution of fertilisers to farmers at a subsidised rate in the 2017 farming season.

The Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr Michael Eneh, made the disclosure when he spoke  with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Enugu on Monday.

Eneh said that fertiliser subsidy was captured in the 2017 fiscal budget assented by Gov. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi.

“Looking at the budget holistically, the issues of agriculture were well captured with special emphasis on fertiliser subsidy,” he said.

The commissioner said the ministry would do everything possible to provide fertilisers that would go round to all farmers in the state.

According to him, this will be evenly distributed across the 17 local government areas of the state to encourage farming and boost food production in the state.

“The state Ministry of Agriculture has been directed by the governor to ensure that fertilisers were made available to all our farmers at a subsidised rate before the middle of April.

“This will enable our farmers confront the issue of massive food production aggressively with all manner of seriousness,” he said.

Eneh said arrangements had been made to ensure timely distribution of fertilisers and other farm inputs as soon as they were supplied to the state.

The commissioner, however, warned that government would not spare anybody found sabotaging the process.

“We believe that when these plans were effectively implemented, the state will witness massive food production in this year’s harvest,” he said.