By Ahmed Idris
The Presidential Fertilizer Initiative (PFI) would deliver four million bags of 50kg Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium (NPK) fertilizer to farmers at an affordable price before the end of the year.
This was disclosed by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Garba Shehu, at the Hannu Ya Dawa, an audience participation programme on FRCN Kaduna, on Sunday.
He said the 11 fertilizer blending plants in the country would be increased to 18 by the end of the year to provide direct employment to no fewer than 50,000 Nigerians.
Shehu said the projected delivery of the four million bags of fertilizer by December is in addition to the six million bags of 50kg fertilizers already sold to farmers since the Initiative commenced early this year.
‘‘The problem of the shortage of fertilizers and its attendant high cost plaguing the nation’s agricultural production, seemingly intractable for decades, have been resolved following the successful execution of the mandate of the PFI.
‘‘Since the implementation of the Initiative, the six million 50kg bags of NPK fertilizers were purchased by State governments and agro-dealers across the country,’’ he said.
He said the production of locally-blended fertilizer had saved the federal government about $150 million this year, hitherto spent on foreign exchange; and N60 billion in budgetary provisions for fertilizer subsidy.
He said the successful implementation of the PFI had made fertilizer available to Nigerian farmers at affordable prices and in time for the 2017 wet season farming.
The objective of the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative, which was approved by President Muhammadu Buhari in December 2016, is to procure the four constituent raw materials for Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium (NPK) fertilizer – locally-sourced Urea, locally-sourced Limestone granules (LSG), Diammonium Phosphate (DAP) imported from Morocco, and Muriate of Potash (MOP) sourced from Europe – and blend these locally to produce NPK Fertilizer at a much-reduced cost.
The Presidential Fertilizer Initiative is being executed by the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) through a Special Purpose Vehicle that will roll out the one million tonnes of NPK Fertilizer in five batches of 200,000 metric tonnes each.
