Buhari says will continue with agric policy, GESS

Permanent secretaries in the agriculture and water resources ministries met with President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja yesterday, following which the president said his administration would continue with the previous government’s agricultural expansion drive.

Buhari assured that therewould be no policy change to affect already running programmes in the Ministry of Agriculture , especially the Growth Enhancement Support Scheme (GESS).

The president has further directed the Ministry of Agriculture to adopt and fine-tune a blueprint formulated during his tenure as chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) on ending farmers/ herdsmen clashes across the country.

This was disclosed by Sunny Echono,  permanent secretary in the ministry of Agriculture,  after briefing the President on the activities of the ministry.

The Growth Enhancement Support Scheme (GESS) is a Federal Government initiative instituted by the past administration to actualise the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA). It is aimed at subsidising the costs of major agricultural inputs, such as fertiliser and seedlings for farmers.

Based on the GESS policy, the Federal and State Governments are to equally contribute the balance of 50 percent, being the approved subsidy amount for onward payment to participating inputs (fertilizer) suppliers.

Echeno spoke to clarify the rumoured reversal of the programme by the Kano State Government as it procured fertilizers for its farmers, stating that the ministry has not reversed the programme.

According to him, the state government intervened because of  bureaucratic delays that cropped up during the transition period.

“It was one of the issues we discussed with the President and based on the directives that we will get very shortly, we will be able to get across to all the other states.

“There will be no policy change, the GESS is the most effective, transparent and accountable way of ensuring farm inputs get directly to the farmer without intermediaries and without all the various corrosive behaviour that used to tempt the process. So we are on course with the project and we have the support of all the states” he said.

“So it a continuum, we did not envisage much change interms of policy but ensuring that those things that work, work , and correcting those things that are not working very well to ensure that we derive maximum efficiency from our efforts” he added.

Meanwhile, the President also met with officials of the Ministry of Water Resources, led by the Permanent Secretary, Musa Istifanus, who he directed to re-prioritise issues of importance to the ministry and report back to him.

Istifanus told journalists after the meeting that the team reviewed the ministry’s handover notes with the President, informing him of immediate challenges of flooding and how the river basins in the country could be of immense help.

BusinessDay recently repored that the failure of government to organise and co-ordinate off-season irrigation in parts of the country led to the ongoing accute shortages of the tomato crop and an attending 100 percent  price hike.

Elizabeth Archibong