Okwe Obi
Fertiliser is one input farmers have not really had easy access to its distribution and usage. It is either the cost is inflated, asymmetrical to the quantity or it is adulterated leading not just to the destruction of crops but also land, or it is hoarded during planting seasons by middle men.
Recently, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Sabo Nanono, publicly presented the National Fertiliser Quality (Control) Act 2019 (NFQCA), passed into law by the 8th National Assembly, as a legal framework to address some of the problems.
Nanono explained that the Act is to safeguard the interest of farmers against nutrients’ deficiencies, adulteration, misleading claims and short weight; fertiliser enterprise and to contribute to the creation of an enabling environment for private sector investment in the fertiliser value chain.
Before the Act, several reforms had been initiated to check the malpractices, knowing that fertiliser is to farmers what water is to fish, or what petrol is to a vehicle; and it is very important for crop yield.
In 2012, the Federal Government launched the Growth Enhancement Support (GES) scheme to subsidise fertiliser by 25 per cent while state governments were expected to add another 25 per cent subsidy to enable farmers purchase at N2,750 per bag as against the market price of between N5,000 and N6,000.
Under the scheme, farmers were to get two bags of fertiliser each at the subsidised rate, along with a free bag of either improved maize or rice.
Former Minister of Agriculture, Akinwumi Adesina, explained that the move was to reform the fertiliser distribution system, roiled in corruption.
He said only about 11 per cent of farmers ever got the subsidised fertiliser in the past. The rest were diverted by officials and shared to well-connected politicians or sold to marketers, leading to a loss of about N776 billion government funds between 1980 and 2010.
At face value, the GES scheme aims to weed out middle men, bypass fraudulent officials and sell fertiliser directly to farmers through a private sector-driven process under which government-licensed agro-dealers sell input to the registered farmers.
The Act of 2019 contains heavy sanctions to deter racketeers from perpetrating illegal dealings. In Section 9 and 10, it states that a person who “sells fertiliser supplements containing destructive ingredients or properties harmful to plant growth when used according to the accompanying instruction or in accordance with the instructions contained on the label of the package in which the fertiliser or the fertiliser supplements will pay a fine of N10 million.”
It adds that an application for a permit or certificate of registration under subsection (2a) shall be “made on such reform and in such manner, and accompanied by non-refundable fee as may be prescribed in regulations made.”
Upon being satisfied that on the application for a permit or a certificate of registration has been made in the prescribed manner “the prescribed authority shall issue permits and certificates of registration to the applicants within 30 days of the receipt of the application.”
The Act explains that a person engaged in the sale, distribution, transportation of fertiliser or who keeps custody of fertiliser shall not, without lawful authority, divert or convert the fertiliser to his use or the use of another, if found wanting shall pay a fine of “N1 million or be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of at least six months or both.”