Farmers Plight

 Factors Contributing To The High Cost Of Fertilizer In Nigeria.

By Mala Abdulazeez Mohammed.

Fertilizer companies in Nigeria have revealed that there are several reasons for the high price this year.

They explained that as farmers continue to struggle with the cost of fertilizers, there are fears that it could hurt farmers by reducing the amount of crops they can produce this season.

Abubakar Aliyu Haruna, president of the Nigerian Rice Growers Association, confirmed to reporters that the high cost of fertilizer will affect rice production in northern Nigeria this season.

He said, "Last year, bags of fertilizers were bought at prices ranging from 7,000 to 10,000 Naira, but this year the price of fertilizer has reached 26,000 or 30,000 naira depending on the type."

However, in response, some of the country's largest fertilizer companies have cited the reasons for the shortage and high cost of fertilizer in the country.

Mas'ud Lawal, an official at the Barbados Fertilizer Processing Company in Kaduna, said there were a number of reasons why fertilizer was expensive:

Rising dollar prices

Mr. Mas'ud said most of the materials needed for fertilizing are imported.

He said the dollar was being used to trade in such chemicals, adding that rising dollar prices had made commodities more expensive.

The price of diesel

Trucks are used to transport the materials needed to transport  fertilizers from the point of purchase to companies.

The scarcity and rising cost of a liter of diesel fuel is one of the main reasons for the rise in the price of a bag of fertilizer.

According to him, in addition to trucks transporting goods from the coast to companies, modern fertilizing machines also use diesel fuel, so its high cost has pushed up the cost of fertilizer.

Social economic damage

He said the lack of money and the high cost of living in Nigeria had also made it difficult for many farmers to afford fertilizer.

Other factors that Mr. Lawal cited as contributing to the rise in the price of modern fertilizers were the high cost of electricity, as well as the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia.

However, he said the Nigerian government had made efforts to ensure that fertilizer was not too expensive by setting the price of some of the most popular fertilizer varieties.

An example of such fertilizer is NPK 20-10-10 which the Nigerian government says should not be sold at a price above N22,700.