The Nation Newspaper

Tag: fertiliser

  • Fertiliser: Farmers resort to animal dung in Zaria

    Farmers in Zaria and Kaduna states have expressed concern over the delay in the distribution of fertiliser for this year’s farming season, a sittuation that has forced them to resort to using animal dung.

    The farmers made their position known in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria in Zaria.

    Alhaji Musa Dogara, a Zaria-based farmer, said the call became necessary following the commencement of rain across the state.

    He said: “We thank God Almighty rain had already commenced, therefore, I want to appeal to governments at all levels to speed-up effort at supplying fertiliser to enable us put in more efforts towards realising a bumper harvest.

    “This delay has forced us to resort to using animal dung in order to bridge the gap,” he said.

    Dogara observed that the delay in the supply of the commodity would not only affect the input of individuals and farmers generally, but it would negatively affect the overall output.

    On his part, a peasant farmer at Rafinyashi village, Malam Mutawakkilu Rafinyashi, described early supply of fertilisers as a path to national food security.

    He called on farmers not to rely 100 per cent on inorganic fertilisers, advising that they should endeavour to be prompt users of organic fertilisers such as animal dung and refuse.

    “Relying 100 per cent on conventional fertiliser is not the best for our farmers but they must resolve to use organic fertilisers with a view to reviving the soil acidity,”he said.

    Rafinyashi also appealed to government to consider the possibility of replacing the conventional fertilisers with organic.

  • Govt may ban fertiliser imports

    The Federal Government is drafting a legislation to ban the importation of fertiliser, Planning Minister Abubakar Olarenwaju Sulaiman has said.

    He said a ban was necessary to protect local producers.

    Sulaiman spoke during a visit to Super Phosphate Fertiliser and Chemicals Ltd in Kaduna.

    He said the ban would also include any product which the economy has the capability to produce to reverse the adverse effects of cheap foreign imports on the local manufacturing industry.

    Sulaiman said: “We need to stop importation of products that we can produce in Nigeria, including fertiliser.

    “A policy statement is coming out in a few weeks to address this. What we can produce in Nigeria, we must not import.”

    Sulaiman also reiterated the government’s commitment to revamp the power sector, saying, “Government is doing everything right to make sure that the power sector works better and more efficiently for Nigerians to enjoy.

    The idea of privatisation is in the best interest of Nigerians.”

  • Fertiliser use to surpass 200 million tonnes in 2018

    Fertiliser use to surpass 200 million tonnes in 2018

    Global fertiliser use is likely to rise above 200.5 million tonnes in 2018, 25 per cent higher than recorded in 2008.

    World fertiliser consumption will grow by 1.8 per cent a year through 2018, according to Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)’s new report “World fertiliser trends and outlook to 2018.”

    At the same time “the global capacity of fertiliser products, intermediates and raw materials will increase further,” the report said.

    As the potential to produce fertilisers will outpace their use, the global potential balance – a technical term measuring the amount available over actual demand – will grow for nitrogen, phosphate and potash, the main three soil fertilisers.

    Global use of nitrogen, by far the largest fertiliser base, is projected to rise 1.4 per cent each year through 2018, while phosphate use will increase 2.2 per cent and potash 2.6 per cent. In comparison, the supply of those three critical components is expected to grow by 3.7 per cent, 2.7 per cent and 4.2 per cent per annum, respectively, according to FAO’s outlook report.

  • Farmers receive N151 billion worth of fertiliser

    Farmers receive N151 billion worth of fertiliser

    Nigerian  farmers have redeemed a total 1.37 million metric tonnes of fertiliser worth N151 billion ($915 million), the  Minister  of  Agriculture  and Rural  Development, Dr Akinwumi  Adesina  has  said.

    In  addition , he   said  farmers  also  received   102,703 metric tonnes of improved rice seeds and 67,991 metric tons of improved maize seeds valued at N43 billion ($260 million).

    Speaking  at the   flag-off    of the Agricultural Equipment Hiring Enterprises Programme in Zamfara State, Adesina  said   between 2012 and this year, Nigeria produced an additional 21 million metric tonnes of food, exceeding the   target of 20 million metric tonnes  set for next  year.  He  announced  also  that  over  three million farm jobs have been created.

    Acoording to him,  the government  has   improved food security of 40 million persons in rural farm households.

    Following  this  success, the  minister   said  the  government  is  determined  to     mechanise agriculture and free  farmers from reliance on hoes and cutlasses. This, he   said  will  be  achieved  through   Agricultural Equipment Hiring Enterprises (AEHE).

    For  this reason, he   said  the  government  has   directed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to set aside N50 billion Agricultural Mechanisation Fund for the roll out of the AEHE the country. The initiate, he explained is a purely Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) strategy that will set up agricultural equipment hiring enterprises in strategic locations to provide mechanised farm services to farming communities.

    The  hiring  centres, he   noted  would  provide   leasing/hiring of agricultural equipment for land preparation, harvesting and post-harvest operations, repair and maintenance of such equipments.

    The centres will also serve as an incubator for human capital development within farming communities.

    Between now and 2016, he  said  the Agricultural Mechanisation Fund will establish a minimum of 1,200 Agricultural AEHEs across the nation. The  centres  will provide 6,000 units of tractors and their implements, 15,000 power tillers and over 20,000 planting, harvest and post harvest equipments. Through  them ,he   said  the  government  would  be  able  to  mechanise four million hectares of farm land and expand food production by an additional 20 million metric tonnes.

     

     

  • Fertiliser: Govt targets 20m farmers

    The Acting Director-General, National Agricultural Seed Councils (NASC),   Dr Philips Olusegun-Ojo, has said the Federal Government was targeting 20 million farmers in the  fertiliser distribution for the next year’s farming season.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that Olusegun-Ojo revealed this when he declared open a three-day training on seed certification and quality control held at the Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR), Zaria, Kaduna State.

    The  training, organised by the council, had corps members, NASC certification officers, internal quality control and seed production officers of seed companies as participants.

    According to Olusegun-Ojo,  the Growth Enhancement Support (GES) scheme of the government got to over 90 per cent of Nigerian farmers, saying that this had never happened in the past.

    He said: “Before the introduction of GES, only 11 per cent of Nigerian farmers got fertilisers; but now, over 90 per cent receive the commodity from their redemption centres.

    “In view of the enormous success recorded by GES in Nigeria, countries like China, Brazil, Kenya and Tanzania came to borrow a leave from us.”

    Olusegun-Ojo applauded the government’s initiative in introducing the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) aimed at creating jobs for Nigerians apart from facilitating the attainment of national food security.

    The director-general noted that ATA had succeeded in encouraging farmers to view farming as a business and not as an inherited traditional profession with bleak future.

    He said all tiers of government, cooperative societies, private organisations and individuals are partners in progress as far as agricultural transformation is concerned.

    He, however, observed that some state governments were reluctant in extending the necessary support to enhance the success of ATA in their respective states.

    The director-general said the task of making high quality seeds available to the farming population was enormous.

    Earlier in an address, the NASC Regional Head, North-West Zone, Malam Mohammed Ubandoma, said the training was one of the ways to augment the efforts of ATA.

    According to him, sensitisation and training of stakeholders are part of government’s efforts to ensure food security.

    He explained that it was necessary to acquaint stakeholders with seed production and quality control techniques.

    He said the training was a collective responsibility towards ensuring quality seed production for consumption as well as agro-industries through the value chain approach.

  • Govt approves introduction of new fertiliser input

    The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has approved the introduction of Urea Super Granule (USG) fertilisers as one of the agro-inputs to be distributed under the Growth Enhancement Support (GES) scheme.

    According to the Communications Coordinator, the International Fertilizer Distribution Centre (IFDC), Mrs. Feyikemi Adurogbanga, the new fertilizer input will be distributed in Kano, Kebbi, Jigawa, Niger, and Sokoto on a pilot base.

    She said the technology, which is mainly practiced under irrigated system enables farmers to minimize production costs, use less quantity of fertilizer, increase yield and reduces runoff and volatilization rate of urea.

    “The urea briquettes are produced using briquetting machines. USAID-MARKETS II project is partnering with the Federal Government to increase awareness and develop a robust market demand for the UDP technology amongst smallholder farmers.

    “The USG fertilizer is a component of the Urea Deep Placement (UDP) technology introduced in Nigeria by IFDC. It is currently being promoted by the United States Agency of International Development (USAID USAID-MarketsII, maximizing agricultural revenue in key Enterprises and Targeted Sites II (Markets II) project.

    “The UDP technology is a one-time application of urea (briquettes) 5-7cm deep into the soil in between four transplanted rice stands,” she said in a statement in Abuja.

    According to her, since the inception of the project in 2012, about 200,000 farmers have been trained on the UDP technology.

    She added that the partnership will cause an increase in farmers trained because targeted farmers will receive training from USAID-MARKETS II project in the various redemption centers across the five states.

    Director of the Federal Fertilizer Department,  the Ministry of Agriculture, Mr. Akinbolawa Osho,explained that the introduction of the input into GES will increase the robustness of the scheme as well as develop a new input supply chain that will create jobs for various actors.

    “Each Farmer will receive 40Kg of USG fertilizers; in addition to two 50kg bags of NPK and improved seeds during the upcoming dry season GES at an approved subsidy rate.”

     

     

  • Yara plans $2.5 billion gas-based fertiliser plant in Africa

    Yara International ASA (YAR), the largest publicly traded nitrogen-fertilizer seller, said it plans to build a $2.5 billion plant in west or east Africa once gas projects come on-stream toward the end of the decade.

    Yara has held initial talks with governments in countries such as Nigeria, Tanzania, Angola, Ghana and Mozambique about building a “considerable and world-class” urea factory to produce for African and foreign markets, Chief Executive Officer Joergen Ole Haslestad said in an interview in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa.

    He said: “We would very much like to participate in greenfield fertilizer production developments,” he said. “This is probably three to four years down the road before it will materialise.”

    Mozambique may become the world’s third-largest gas producer in 2018 after companies such as Eni SpA of Italy and Woodlands, Texas-based Anadarko Petroleum Corp. begin output from reserves estimated at 250 trillion cubic feet. Tanzania, which has the biggest reserves in east Africa after Mozambique with 46.5 trillion cubic feet, expects that figure to exceed 100 trillion cubic feet within the next two to three years, Energy Minister Sospeter Muhongo said in February.

    Joergen Ole Haslestad, Chief Executive Officer of Yara International ASA.

    Yara acquired Brazil’s Galvani Industria Comercio e Servicos SA for $318 million last month to expand further in South America. It bought Bunge Ltd.’s operations in Brazil for $750 million in December 2012 and OFD Holding Inc. from Omimex Resources Inc. for $425 million in November last year.

    “Obviously the west part of Africa is good for Latin America where have big operations,” Haslestad said about the export possibilities from the planned fertilizer plant. “So we can take advantage of that.”

    Yara, based in Oslo, plans to add to its existing seven African bagging and warehousing facilities by opening a $20 million unit close to the harbor in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s commercial capital, in October. It plans a similar venture in Ghana once the economic situation improves in that country, Haslestad said.

    The West African nation has turned to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for help in rescuing its currency, which has lost 37 per cent against the dollar this year.

    A decision on whether to proceed with potash extraction at Yara’s majority-owned project in northeast Ethiopia will probably be made early next year, he said. Production of sulphate of potash for export could then begin three years later from what would be a $1billion project, according to Haslestad.

    “There will be resources enough for having mining operations there for the next 30 to 40 years,” he said.

    The company expects to see sales grow “gradually” in Africa, which is the world’s fastest-growing fertilizer market, he said.

  • Yara plans $2.5 billion gas-based fertiliser plant in Africa

    Yara International ASA (YAR), the largest publicly traded nitrogen-fertilizer seller, said it plans to build a $2.5 billion plant in west or east Africa once gas projects come on-stream toward the end of the decade.

    Yara has held initial talks with governments in countries such as Nigeria, Tanzania, Angola, Ghana and Mozambique about building a “considerable and world-class” urea factory to produce for African and foreign markets, Chief Executive Officer Joergen Ole Haslestad said in an interview in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa.

    He said: “We would very much like to participate in greenfield fertilizer production developments,” he said. “This is probably three to four years down the road before it will materialise.”

    Mozambique may become the world’s third-largest gas producer in 2018 after companies such as Eni SpA of Italy and Woodlands, Texas-based Anadarko Petroleum Corp. begin output from reserves estimated at 250 trillion cubic feet. Tanzania, which has the biggest reserves in east Africa after Mozambique with 46.5 trillion cubic feet, expects that figure to exceed 100 trillion cubic feet within the next two to three years, Energy Minister Sospeter Muhongo said in February.

    Joergen Ole Haslestad, Chief Executive Officer of Yara International ASA.

    Yara acquired Brazil’s Galvani Industria Comercio e Servicos SA for $318 million last month to expand further in South America. It bought Bunge Ltd.’s operations in Brazil for $750 million in December 2012 and OFD Holding Inc. from Omimex Resources Inc. for $425 million in November last year.

    “Obviously the west part of Africa is good for Latin America where have big operations,” Haslestad said about the export possibilities from the planned fertilizer plant. “So we can take advantage of that.”

    Yara, based in Oslo, plans to add to its existing seven African bagging and warehousing facilities by opening a $20 million unit close to the harbor in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s commercial capital, in October. It plans a similar venture in Ghana once the economic situation improves in that country, Haslestad said.

    The West African nation has turned to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for help in rescuing its currency, which has lost 37 per cent against the dollar this year.

    A decision on whether to proceed with potash extraction at Yara’s majority-owned project in northeast Ethiopia will probably be made early next year, he said. Production of sulphate of potash for export could then begin three years later from what would be a $1billion project, according to Haslestad.

    “There will be resources enough for having mining operations there for the next 30 to 40 years,” he said.

    The company expects to see sales grow “gradually” in Africa, which is the world’s fastest-growing fertilizer market, he said.

     

  • Council seeks more fertiliser allocation

    The Chairman,Kabo Local Government Area in Kano State, Alhaji Murtala Sulen-Garo, has appealed to the Federal Government to allocate more fertiliser to farmers in the area.

    Sulen-Garo made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kabo Town on Wednesday.

    He said the appeal became necessary because the 11,780 bags of fertiliser allocated to the area were inadequate due to the large number of farmers in the area.

    He said that only 5,890 out of over 11,000 registered farmers in the area benefitted from the Federal Government’s fertiliser policy this cropping season.

    “We received 11,780 bags of fertiliser but only 5,890 out of more than 11,000 registered farmers received the commodity this year.

    “Most of our people in this area are local farmers who rely solely on government’s subsidised fertiliser and other inputs,’’ he said.

    The chairman also called on the Federal Government to review the mode of distribution of the commodity as most of the local farmers had no cell phones with which to receive the text messages.

    “The whole aim is to assist local farmers to access the commodity, but not all the farmers have cell phones.

    “Any farmer who does not have cell phone should be able to collect the commodity at the redemption centres, provided he is a genuine farmer,’’ he said.

    He expressed optimism that if the programme was reviewed, it would help in alleviating the sufferings of local farmers.

    “The scheme is good but there is need for government to review it with a view to achieving total success,’’ he said

     

  • Fertiliser Centre registers 106,000 farmers

    The International Fertilizer Development Centre (IFDC) has registered about 106,000 farmers in the Growth Enhancement Support Scheme (GES) Touch and Pay system in the six area councils of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    The FCT Coordinator, GES-TAP, Mr. Bisi Ilebani explained that the system, which is operational in the FCT and Sokoto State, was designed to secure a database of farmers.

    Speaking further, Ilebani said IFDC devised the GES-TAP technology to make it possible for government to identify individual farmers with their unique identification numbers and the TAP card issued upon completion of registration process.

    The FCT coordinator who spoke at one of the registration centres in Mpape, Bwari Area Council, said the figure recorded this year surpassed the 36, 000 farmers registered in 2013.

    He said: “In the Growth Enhancement Support Scheme, we noticed series of challenges; the major one was the issue of mobile networks in some villages.

    “We were on the field and we saw all these challenges, where some agro-dealers could not get their money on time after the supply to farmers. As we looked at it we decided to introduce GESTAP.

    “The TAP card will help to solve the issue of network. The farmers need to take the TAP card to any of the redemption centres to redeem their farm inputs.”

    He added: “We have registered 106, 000 farmers in FCT, and since the government launched the GES such number of farmers had not been registered. We have 250 enumerators on the field across the FCT, and 25 supervisors.