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From Abdulrazaq Mungadi, Gombe
Gombe state government has disclosed that it’s working to provide fertilizers and other farming inputs for farmers in the state to participate in the 2022 wet season farming.
According to the state’s commissioner of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Muhammad Magaji Gettado, Preparations for the cropping season have reached top gear. He said, “our plans are to provide improved seeds and seedlings of high qualities that can produce a minimum of three to four tons per hectare.
The commissioner stated this in an interview with Daily Sun in Gombe. The Emir of Deba emirate council in Yamaltu/Deba Local Government Area (LGA) of the state, Alhaji Ahmed Usman Mohammed, had called on the government to provide farmers with fertilizers as it would help in encouraging the farmers to do more in food production for the state.
Speaking to Daily Sun in his palace in Deba the headquarters of Yamaltu/Deba LGA, the Emir said, “Our basic problem is that of the expectations on the government as to when and how early we will get fertilizers because if you don’t get fertilizers in good time, you may have to start without fertilizer and by the time the fertilizer comes if it is late, it may not have much effect on the produce.
“So, it is better we have the fertilizers distributed at a good time for our farmers to have a good planting and harvest season. Of course, the rain has started dropping and our communities have already gone back to the farm clearance,” the Emir said.
However, the Commissioner of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry assured that there is no cause for alarm as the state government had plans to provide fertilizers to the farmers by the second week of May.
“We understand that to provide fertilizers at the start of the season will help to prepare the farmer’s mind, because it would help them to decide what and how to plan for the season, either to cultivate two, five, 10 hectares or more, depending on the quantity of inputs available to them”.
“The government is doing everything possible to get a minimum of 10,000 metric tons of fertilizers for our farmers,” Gettado stated.
The commissioner, however, lamented the restriction that was placed on the favourite Urea fertilizer product in the country. He said, “that was one of the challenges we encountered during the last cropping season.
“NPK 20-10-10 is the required fertilizers for farmers in Gombe and you know, you cannot blend NKP without Urea which was not available due to the restriction placed on the product by the federal government,” Gettado said.
He expressed hope that the restriction would be lifted before the commencement of the season. “We hope that before the start of this season the restriction would be lifted so that our farmers can have easy access to their much-needed fertilizers in due course in Gombe,” Gettado told Daily Sun.
