AT the start of every planting season in Ringim Local Government Area (LGA), Jigawa State, hope rises with the rains. But for the women farmers who depend on government fertiliser for good farm yields, that hope fades quickly.

By Muhammad Sani

The fertiliser they expect from the state government ends up as nothing more than a promise proclaimed in public announcements, discussed at meetings and radio programmes, but missing on the farms where it is needed most. Each year they wait, only to realise that the promised support never came in time and, in many cases, it never arrived at all. 

Women like Hajiya Hadiza Adamu, 48, know this frustration too well. She has farmed in Yan Dutse in Ringim LGA for more than 20 years and leads a group of smallholder women farmers who depend on fertiliser to keep their farmland productive. She says the state’s agro support and intervention programmes do not reach her community despite its long history of farming. 

“We hear the announcements every season, but we never see the fertiliser,” she said.  

“We register our names and attend every meeting, yet nothing comes to us. It is painful because we do all the work on our farms without any support. Every year, we buy fertiliser on credit, and we still struggle to pay back.” 

Her farming business, which is her major source of livelihood, now struggles as the support she plans her farming activities around remains trapped in speeches and paperwork instead of reaching the people who actually till the soil. 

This experience is not isolated. A visit to villages in Ringim and Taura LGAs revealed that many women farmers who rely on government support often struggle to earn a living due to unmet government promises and shrinking harvests. Many of them now rely on compost pits, borrowed labour and old soil restoring methods simply to keep their crops alive.  

Agricultural experts say this dependence on fertiliser is linked to the condition of the land in the area as well as most parts of the state. Aminu Sulaiman, an agricultural extension agent in Taura, explained that years of continuous cultivation without adequate crop rotation or resting periods have steadily depleted soil nutrients across these communities.

According to Sulaiman, farmland that once produced reasonable yields now requires more seeds, labour and water just to sustain crops. He added that organic methods alone are no longer sufficient for many farmers, making fertiliser essential to restore soil productivity. As a result, rural women farmers are forced to rely on fertiliser which is now beyond their reach due to rising costs and limited access. 

Jigawa Agricultural Support and Fertiliser Subsidy/Intervention 

The scenario in these communities contradicts Jigawa’s multi-billion-naira agricultural allocations and official claims of successful fertiliser distribution. In 2025, Jigawa State government had an approved budget of ₦698.3bn which was later revised to ₦756.3bn after a supplementary appropriation. The government itself describes 2025 as a year of “agricultural transformation,” with new programmes and agencies created to push food production and support farmers across the state.  

Within this broader spending, several specific initiatives were launched that should, in principle, improve access to fertiliser and other inputs in the state. In August 2025, the Jigawa State Executive Council (SEC) approved ₦7bn for the 2025 dry season rice cultivation programme, to pay agro-input dealers and service providers under the Dry Season Rice Input Voucher System.

The Commissioner for Information Youth, Sports and Culture, Sagir Musa Ahmed, said the intervention is meant to deepen the state’s commitment to agricultural transformation by providing high quality seeds, fertilisers and chemicals to thousands of farmers and to make Jigawa a leading hub for rice production.  

In the same vein, the state also approved ₦365.7m for the construction of 4,600 tube wells in key farming communities. Tube wells are shallow boreholes fitted with pumping systems that provide water for irrigation, especially during the dry season. They are designed to help farmers cultivate crops year-round, reduce dependence on rainfall and increase overall productivity in dry season farming. 

Beyond rice production, the state has rolled out targeted agricultural support for civil servants, alongside loan schemes and other interventions aimed at expanding participation in farming and improving access to inputs. In August 2025, the government launched the second phase of its Workers Agricultural Support Programme, spending more than ₦1.2bn to assist 5,750 civil servants with farming inputs for the 2025 rainy season. 

This is a scheme aimed at encouraging farmers to engage in agricultural production. Each beneficiary receives a package of fertiliser, improved seeds and pesticides, valued at either ₦250,000 or ₦500,000 depending on grade level, to be repaid through salary deductions. The first phase in 2024 reportedly cost over ₦3.3billion, bringing the total commitment for civil servants to more than ₦4.5billion in two years.  

The state is also benefitting from federal agricultural interventions. In September 2025, the Jigawa State government approved ₦396m to pay for 20 trucks of NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium) fertiliser allocated by the federal government at a subsidised rate of ₦33,000 per bag, a total of 12,000 bags. The government said the fertiliser was meant to support smallholder farmers and complement the 2025–2026 Dry Season Agricultural Programme of the state.  

A separate federal support package, announced in October 2025, provided fertiliser valued at over ₦450m to be sold to Jigawa farmers at subsidised prices, with Governor Umar Namadi describing it as part of a wider push to enhance food production and modernise farming.  

Women speak on being denied fertiliser support  

Despite the scale of these investments, farmers say the benefits are not reaching them. Previous interventions in the state have followed the same pattern, and there are already concerns that this year’s funds are drifting in that direction. 

 Many women farmers in Ringim and Taura LGAs said they have not received any fertiliser or input support in their communities. They hear announcements about vouchers, truck deliveries and subsidised prices, but claim their names are never on the lists and no records are displayed to show who received the inputs. 

In Malamawa community in Taura LGA, Amina Musa, 38, said she joined every registration exercise announced by local officials. She supports her household through smallholder rice farming but has never received a single bag of government subsidised fertiliser since she started farming. According to her, officials told her to expect allocation during planting season, yet nothing ever reached her village. Her crops suffer each year because she relies on borrowed inputs and whatever organic manure she can gather.  

To cope, women in these communities employ stopgap measures including relying on organic manure, reducing the size of their farms or pool labour through traditional arrangements such as ‘Gayya’ a rotational communal farming system where women work on one another’s farms in turns. Some farmers supplement their income through petty trading or craftwork. While these efforts help them survive, farmers said they (the efforts) cannot replace fertiliser on land that has been cultivated for decades.  

In Zangon Kanya community, Ringim LGA, Hadiza Garba, 42, shares a similar account. She leads a group of women rice growers and said they have submitted their names for years without success. She said men in the village are usually selected first and women are told to wait even when they are also do farm work daily. 

“We farm every day but they do not count us when they share fertilizer,” she said, adding, “We register every year, but our names never appear on the list.” 

These accounts point to the same experience in different communities visited. Leaders of women farmer groups explain how they submitted their names, attended meetings and followed every guideline, only to watch fertiliser allocations pass them by. 

“We present our list every season but nothing changes,” said Hassana Tuara, a women’s group leader in Taura LGA. “They take our names, but the fertiliser goes to other people.” 

Others recount how trucks arrive at distribution points only for officials to hand out the inputs to a select few, leaving most women to walk home with nothing and forcing them to improvise through organic manure and shared labour. 

“We were told to come to the local government council hall but when the trucks came, they shared everything among their loyalists. We stood there with our slips and they asked us to come back the next day. When we returned there was nothing left,” Raliya Musa from Taura said. 

‘Fertiliser does not reach the remote villages’ 

Community leaders and district heads in the places visited confirm that allocations do not reach the villages despite government reports that claim otherwise. 

In Zangon Kanya in Ringim LGA, the District Head, Ibrahim Mai Unguwa lamented that the community has never received fertiliser under the state subsidy programme. 

“The only thing we hear is radio announcements that say fertiliser has been shared. Fertiliser has never knocked our farmers’ door.” 

In Yan Dutse, Ringim LGA, Village Head Mansur Naibi explained that distribution often favours male household heads and elderly men while women farmers are excluded. He also said there are no notices, no receipts and no community registration check at the community levels. 

“The fertiliser often goes to men and a few senior farmers. Women are often not prioritised even when they farm often.” 

In Malamawa, Taura LGA, the Village Head Habibu Shitu, said that fertiliser distribution is politicised and diverted to political party supporters. 

“Women receive no information and no representation,” he said.  

“When it finally comes it goes to those close to the officials.” 

The traditional leader of Sabon Garin Taura, Taura LGA, Alhaji Usman Adamu, said that some lists displayed in the village contain names of people who no longer live in the community. 

 “Some of the lists displayed in the village contain names of people who have long abandoned the community, yet their names are still being used to collect government’s support meant for the most vulnerable. This is unacceptable and a clear case of corruption and exploitation. We urge the authorities to investigate and ensure that the rightful beneficiaries receive the support intended for them,” Alhaji Usman added.  

Despite the size of Jigawa State’s agricultural budget, many farmers say the system that should deliver fertiliser to communities is weakened by politics and poor transparency. In both Ringim and Taura LGAs, community leaders and farmer groups said the farm inputs distribution process is shaped by influence, loyalty and selective access. 

Malamawa community’s Village Head, Habibu Shitu explains that women farmers are consistently left behind because the process is controlled by male dominated networks. He said scarce inputs often end up with political supporters rather than those who need them most.  

“Women are often excluded because distribution channels are controlled by male networks. Politicians allocate inputs to their supporters who can give loyalty or offer some kind of incentives during elections.” Shittu pointed out that women’s low participation in politics also affects their access to official registries, which makes it harder for them to qualify. 

Asked to describe how fertiliser gets into the hands of politicians, he replied, “Who knows. That is how the system flows. I cannot call names and be summoned by the authorities.” 

He said the lack of transparency allows favouritism and corruption to thrive, leaving women without the support needed to boost productivity.  

As these challenges persist, the weight falls on women who must keep their farms running despite the absence of support. However, the failure of fertiliser to reach smallholders women farmers has pushed many deeper into hardship.  

In Taura LGA, Amina Musa explained how borrowing money has become a yearly struggle. She cultivates rice on a two-hectare rice farm with the help of her children but loses a large part of her harvest to loan repayment. 

“When the rice matures, I must surrender a large share of the paddy as repayment,” she said. “After paying for seed, fertilizer and labour I often make no profit and sometimes I even face a deficit.”
She said each season ends in another loan, trapping her family in a cycle that strains their finances and hopes for a better future. 

Several women across Taura and Ringim now rely on low yielding crops and improvised inputs as a result of these challenges. Sadiya Bala, smallholder farmer in Malamawa, said poor access to inputs has kept many families in the community trapped in poverty. 

“We have been struggling to survive, relying on low-yield crops like millet and sorghum,” she said. “The yields are poor, and we can barely feed our families, let alone sell anything. Our farmlands are tired, and we have no access to improved seeds or fertiliser.

“We need support to adopt better farming methods so we can increase our harvests and improve our income. We want to send our children to school, access healthcare and live with dignity, but it is hard when all we think about is where the next meal will come from.” 

The Village Head of Yan Dutse, Mansur Naibi, said women farmers are carrying the heaviest burden. 

“Our women work hard, but they still rely on low-yield crops like millet and sorghum,” he said,adding “They need improved seeds, fertiliser and better farming methods. Without support, they cannot feed their families or earn enough to live decently.” 

In Zangon Kanya, Ibrahim Mai Unguwa, a farmer and Village Head, shared a similar concern. 

“It is painful to watch our women struggle from morning till night and still harvest so little,” he said. “If they had access to modern tools and quality inputs, their lives would be different. They deserve that chance.” 

The risk to food security and gender equality 

Women farmers form a major part of Jigawa’s food supply chain, yet their exclusion from fertiliser distribution now threatens production levels across several communities. In Ringim and Taura LGAs, women who once harvested enough to feed their families and sell in local markets say their output has dropped sharply. With little or no access to inputs, they struggle to maintain the soil, manage pests or plant at the right time. 

Agricultural experts warn that this decline could affect food availability in a state where many households depend on local production. The shortage of fertiliser pushes women into low yielding farming, weakening their ability to support their families. As income falls, many households become more vulnerable to hunger through the farming season. 

The impact is also visible in gender relations. Aminu Sulaiman, an agricultural extension specialist in Taura LGA, said women already face barriers in land ownership, access to credit and extension services, and the fertiliser gap makes these inequalities worse.  

“For many women, farming is their only source of income. When they lack fertiliser, they lose the ability to improve their harvests, support their children’s education or meet basic household needs,” he said. 

Requests For Comments Met with Silence 

Government officials declined to provide clear answers to questions about fertiliser distribution and transparency in Jigawa State. Repeated attempts to obtain official explanations through phone calls, text messages and physical visits to the Jigawa State Ministry of Agriculture yielded no response. 

On November 4, 2025, this newspaper formally submitted a Freedom of Information (FOIA) request to the Jigawa State Ministry of Agriculture, addressed to the Commissioner, Alhaji Muttaka Namadi. The request sought detailed records on fertiliser procurement, allocations, beneficiary lists and distribution in Ringim and Taura LGAs for the 2023, 2024 and 2025 farming seasons. The request was acknowledged as received by Salisu Buba, an official of the ministry on the same day. 

Under the FOI Act of 2011, public institutions are required to respond to such requests within seven working days. That statutory period elapsed on November 12, 2025, without any response from the ministry. A reminder letter was subsequently sent to the commissioner, drawing attention to the lack of response and granting an additional three working days for compliance, as stipulated under the law. Despite this follow-up, the ministry neither released the requested records nor offered any explanation for its silence.  

A similar experience played out at the Jigawa Agricultural and Rural Development Agency (JARDA), the state agency responsible for coordinating agricultural development programmes, including fertiliser distribution, extension services and farmer support initiatives. The agency’s Managing Director, Muhammad Imam, initially agreed to grant an interview after being contacted on October 11 and 12, 2025. However, after the purpose of the inquiry was explained and a meeting date proposed, he became unavailable and stopped responding to further calls and messages. 

On December 10, 2025, this newspaper submitted a separate FOIA request to JARDA, seeking certified records of fertiliser procurement, allocations, beneficiary lists and gender-disaggregated data on women farmers’ access to fertiliser in Ringim and Taura LGAs between 2023 and 2025. The request also asked for copies of monitoring reports used during distribution. As of the time of publication, no response had been received from the agency. 

Some local government officials who agreed to speak offered a different account. Sani Nabirni, a councillor in Taura LGA, said the state government was working to reform fertiliser distribution and improve transparency. He maintained that the governor and council leadership were committed to addressing supply chain challenges and curbing corruption. However, he was unable to provide documents or records to substantiate these claims. 

An accountability expert, Muhammad Nasiru, said officials often avoid scrutiny because they cannot explain how public resources are utilised. According to him, fertiliser and other inputs are sometimes distributed selectively, particularly during election periods. 

He alleged that access to farm inputs is, in some cases, tied to political loyalty, with resources handed to individuals who either possess Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) or pledge support to politicians. Such practices, he said, deepen inequality, exclude vulnerable farmers and erode trust in public institutions. 

“They simply cannot account for it. Some officials release information only when they want to look good or when they need support for elections.” 

This report was made possible with support from the International Centre for Investigative Reporting, (ICIR) under its Strengthening Public Accountability For Results and Knowledge (SPARK 2.2) project.