Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has disclosed that the Federal Government has expended the sum of N158.8bn in fertiliser programme in four years. Osinbajo said that the government in collaboration with Morocco had also launched the local blending capacity of fertiliser programme.
Laolu Akande, the spokesman to Osinbajo, in a statement on Monday July 15, 2019, in Abuja, said that the Vice President made the disclosure at the fourth national discourse on food security of the companion at the University of Lagos.
The breakdown of the expenditure according to the statement indicated that the Federal Government had backed the programme with substantial budgetary allocation to agriculture from N8.8 billion in 2015 to N46.2 billion in 2016; and N103.8 billion in 2018.
This efforts, he said led to the growth of agriculture in Nigeria by 14.27 per cent in 2018. Osinbajo further stated that the government had revived nationwide 11 fertiliser blending plants with a capacity of 2.1 million metric tonnes.
According to him, self-sufficiency in food production remained a major pillar of the economic policy of President Muhammadu Buhari administration. He explained that Buhari had set a clear direction with his declaration that Nigerians must produce what they eat and consume what they produce.
