Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Abubakar Kyari, has assured the federal government’s commitment to reduce the price of fertilizer and other essential farm inputs in the country.
The Minister disclosed this to newsmen shortly after Borno State governor, Prof. Babagana Zulum, flagged off the National Agricultural Growth Scheme Agro-Pocket (NAGS-AP) project for over 6,000 dry season wheat farmers at Jere rice bowl, in Borno on Saturday.
Kyari said bringing down the cost of inputs would help the federal government achieve its goal of food security and stabilise the agricultural sector.
“What we are experiencing now is that the prices of food have gone down while the inputs prices go up.
“So, where farmers are crying is the increase in the input price and it’s where Mr. President promised to take care of the issue.
“For instance, what happened to fertilizer is a structural issue, two heavy items out of an NPK bag: potassium and phosphorus that constitute about 60 percent of the product are all imported.
“It’s something that is beyond your control, so fertilizer blenders don’t have enough supply and the demand is high. That is what happened. But, we are going to avert that,” he said.
Kyari noted that the third phase of the presidential fertilizer initiative would be unveiled under renewed hope to reduce the fertilizer price.
“Also, the major manufacturers of Urea, Dangote and Indorama have given us assurance that they will bring down the price of fertilizer, because they are also getting gas from the government to manufacture Urea at a concessionary price, and we asked them to transfer that concessionary price to the farmers,” he said.
The Minister regretted that Nigeria spends over $6 billion USD each year to import six million tonnes of wheat, when the country has potential to enhance domestic production and export.
“Wheat is one of our highest import bills in agriculture. It’s something that we consume a lot, over 6 million tons. But, we only produce between 500,000 to 600,000 tons, which is less than 10 percent of what we consume.
“And that six million tonnes amount to over $6 billion to 7billion USD,” he added.
He commended the Lake Chad Research Institute for launching seven varieties of wheat seeds that are heat and drought tolerant to improve production.
On the NAGS-AP project, Kyari said it’s the most effective tool for empowering smallholder farmers, who produce more than 80% of Nigeria’s food, in line with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
“For the 2025/2026 farming season, the programme is targeting 80,000 registered farmers nationwide, with an expected output value of about N160 billion”
He said that of the 40,000 hectares earmarked for wheat production during the dry season, 3,000 hectares have been allocated to Borno State—covering 6,000 registered farmers.
