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.