The Plateau Government will soon set up a fertiliser plant as part of efforts to boost agricultural activities in the state, Mr. Steven Barko, the state Commissioner for Agriculture, has disclosed.

Barko said in Jos on Tuesday that the idea was to ensure adequate and timely supply of the input to farmers to boost yields.

“Plateau has 1.9 million farmers who require an average of 10 million bags of fertiliser every year. We are building a fertiliser plant to meet the demands of these farmers.

“If we establish our own fertiliser company, we shall have adequate agricultural input to support our various agricultural programmes.”

He said that a study had confirmed that there would be adequate market for the commodity.

He noted that fertiliser had always been scarce and expensive due to the fact that it was imported and transported from distant places.

The commissioner said that the foundation stone for the plant had been laid at Foron in Barkin-Ladi, adding that the government would require 300 million euro to fully pay for the machines being shipped in from The Netherlands.

“We expect our officials to travel to The Netherlands to ascertain the position of the machines.

“We also expect that the machine handlers from that country will be here to train people on how to handle the machines for maximum output long after they are gone.’’

Barko said that plant, when completed, would have installed production capacity of seven million bags of fertiliser, adding that the development would ease the current fertiliser shortage.

On other efforts to boost agricultural yields, he said that the government had spent more than N10 billion on various agricultural programmes to boost the quantity and quality of yields.

“The sole goal is to make agriculture profitable and attractive to the younger generation. Our surveys have revealed that the sector has been left to old people and we are out to change that.’’