N776bn lost to corruption in fertiliser sector – Adesina

The Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwumi
Adesina, has said the country lost about
N776bn between 1980 and 2010 to
corruption under the old fertiliser
distribution policy.
Adesina, who stated this at the end of a
three-day Food and Agriculture China
South-South High Level meeting in Abuja,
noted that the loss translated into an
average of N26.3bn annually.
Before the inauguration of a new fertiliser
policy under the Growth Enhancement
Scheme, the Federal Government had
bought the product from contractors and
distributed same to farmers. Only few
farmers reportedly had access to the
agricultural input.
This, the minister said, prompted the
Federal Government to unveil a new
scheme where an electronic wallet was
developed that allowed the farmers to
receive subsidised electronic vouchers for
seeds and fertilisers on their mobile
phones.
Under the old policy, Adesina said only 11
per cent of farmers got fertilisers from the
government.
He said, “The backbone of any agricultural
revolution is access of farmers to modern
agricultural inputs, especially fertilisers
and seeds. The old system of the
government buying and distributing
fertilisers was very corrupt. We found that
only 11 per cent of the farmers got the
fertilisers bought and sold by the
government.
“Rich and powerful political elites
siphoned off the fertilisers belonging to
the poor farmers. Between 1980 and 2010,
over N873bn was spent on fertiliser
subsidies. With only 11 per cent of
farmers getting the fertilisers, about
N776bn was siphoned off the system
through corruption.”
The minister said the new fertiliser
system, which was introduced under the
GES, had been successful, adding that in
2012 alone; about 1.5 million smallholder
farmers got subsidised seeds and
fertilisers using their mobile phones.
“So far, this year, over 3.5 million farmers
have received their subsidised inputs via
the e-wallet scheme. The system saved
the country about N25bn in 2012,” he
added.