Agro input dealers blame urea scarcity on major distributors

The Nigeria Agro Input Dealers Association (NAIDA), has raised concerns over urea scarcity in Nigeria markets, attributing it to stoppage of distribution by the major producers including: Indorama Petrochemicals, Notore, and Dangote Fertiliser companies.

Kabiru Fara, the President of NAIDA stated this during launch of the Association’s compliance monitoring team on agricultural input distribution/sales, which was held in Abuja on Thursday.

According to Fara, the inauguration of the team is aimed to make quality agricultural inputs available, accessible and affordable to farmers in Nigeria in furtherance of the food security mandate of the government.

He said, “I will like to use this opportunity to bring the attention of the Minister to an issue which is troubling/bugging our Association currently. This is the scarcity of Urea in the Nigerian markets caused by the stoppage of its distribution by the major producers namely; Indorama Petrochemicals, Notore, and Dangote Fertilizer companies.

“We would therefore appreciate the Minister’s urgent intervention on this matter with a view to encouraging these companies to supply this essential input to eradicate the scarcity in the Nigerian markets as soon as possible.

“The inauguration of this team in all the 36 States and FCT will no doubt facilitate and ultimately create an enabling environment for sustainable agricultural development in Nigeria and our Association will be a body to always reckon with on designing and implementing sustainable agricultural policies through advocacy, provision of accurate agro input information, output marketing and private extension services in collaboration with relevant stake holders,” he said.

In his remarks, Kabir Ibrahim, the president of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) said that producing quality foods in Nigeria was critical to ensuring healthy foods in Africa.

“This is wake up call for everybody, if you put bad products in markets, you harm a large population because some of our neighbouring countries depend on Nigeria for food.

“If Nigeria with over 200 million population has no food safety, that means that the globe is not safe. But I am glad that you are doing soul searching, you are promoting integrity and that is the most important element in nation building, you are not going to be part of the perpetrators of ill health to the world.

“You’re ensuring that anybody who says he or she is a member is duty bound to look at all the ethos of what you chose to do. It is not an all comers game to be an agro dealer.”