Fertilizer Subsidy, Blessing To Farmers – Cooperative

The Financial Controller of the Rivers State Cooperatives Federation (RSCF), Mr Godwin Akandu has described the subsidy on fertilizer by the Federal Government as a blessing to farmers.
Akandu who stated this recently while speaking to The Tide at the just concluded 42nd regular meeting of the National Council on Agriculture and Rural Development (NCARD), in Port Harcourt, disclosed that the Federal Government paid 50 per cent of the cost while the farmers pay 50 per cent.
Akandu, who is also the President of the Etche Farmers Cooperative disclosed that the government also paid 75 per cent in the seedlings and other inputs while the farmers pay the difference.
On the fate of farmers who can not still afford to pay despite such subsidies, the cooperatives boss explained that there were plans by the government to provide soft loans for such category of farmers.
“The government is making plans for those farmers through the provision of soft loans to enable them access such inputs and other facilities”, he said.
He further explained about  the benefits of the Growth Enhancement Scheme (GES), programme of the Federal Government.
“Unlike before, when an allocation is given to a particular state, at the end you do not know were the fertilizers go to, but now the situation is different because such inputs go straight to the benefitting farmer”, he said.
Throwing light on what happens to inputs that remained after the farmers have collected, he explained that the burden lies on the agro dealers who ordered the fertilizers.
According to him, the Federal Government only pays their quota on inputs collected and not on the bulk of the supplies, adding that the matter of disposing excess inputs lies on the agro dealers or cooperatives or individuals that procured them.