By Justina Asishana

EVERY year, the Niger State Government promises smallholder farmers a lifeline: subsidised agricultural inputs and machinery worth millions of naira. Yet, despite the grand declarations and elaborate plans, these subsidies rarely reach the farmers who need them most. What happens after the ceremonial flag-offs? Do the intended beneficiaries, especially those in remote communities, actually get the crucial inputs? Justina Asishana visited several rural communities and spoke to smallholder women farmers about their experiences with government subsidies.

“We have put in place structures and machinery for distribution. We have made it a policy that only 10 bags can be sold to an individual. Bank details and BVN of individuals will be taken into consideration and we have invited the EFCC, ICPC, and also the police to make sure that this is done right. We are bringing subsidies in agriculture and it must be sustained. EFCC, ICPC and CID will oversee the sale of fertilisers to farmers.”

Those were the words of Niger State Governor, Mohammed Umaru Bago, stated at the flag-off of the 2023 wet season sales and distribution of fertilisers as well as other agricultural inputs to farmers in Minna on July 10, 2023. There, however, appears to be a gulf between promises and reality with respect to equitable distribution of fertiliser to farmers in the state.

A rice and soyabeans farmer in Wushishi Local Government Area (LGA) of Niger State, Bilikisu Suleiman, has been into farming for the past eight years. She was hopeful after hearing the governor’s promises. However, her optimism was short-lived because neither she nor other women benefitted from the subsidised inputs.

“This happens every year. We will hear that the government is giving out inputs, but at the end of the day, we do not see or get it..

“But this time, we felt things would change since the governor mentioned EFCC and ICPC, but it remained the same.

“We went to the distribution centre which is the Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) office but were not given any input.

“It came as a surprise to us because they asked us to submit our names but we did not even know who to meet when the distribution began.

“So, we ended up looking at those who came to collect the subsidised produce and thinking of how our members will benefit.

In Gbako LGA, the coordinator of the Smallholder Women Farmers Organisation of Nigeria (SWOFON), Felicia Maaji, who farms beans, groundnut, millet, rice and potatoes, said that the lack of access to subsidised inputs forces farmers to rely on outdated and inefficient methods, including using of hoes for tilling, heaping and planting and cutlass or hoes for weeding.

Due to the inability to get fertilisers, their lands, according to Maaji, have been losing fertility while several crops are being lost to insects and pests because the farmers have no pesticide to stop an infestation.

“Every year, we re-cultivate our lands which are fast losing their fertility because we do not have fertilisers.

“There is no access to government-subsidised fertilisers and no money to buy from the retailers who sell at the stores.

“Chemicals like herbicides and pesticides are too expensive for us. Even now, we are having a shortage of lands because the lands are losing their fertility. They do not produce much like before, and since there is no fertiliser to put in, the yield is low.”

Speaking about benefiting from government-subsidised inputs, the coordinator said they do not hear about it nor have they received it at any time.

“We do not even hear about it, not to talk of receiving. If they are bringing these inputs, it means they do not bring it out in the open for people to benefit. Or maybe they share it among themselves.

“But here in the Gubata community, the farmers have not benefited from any of these subsidies.”

A maize, melon and sweet potatoes farmer from Gusadin Community in Gbako LGA, Mary Musa, recalled better times when fertilisers were affordable, pointing out that since last year, due to the increase in the price, she could no longer buy fertiliser for her farm.

She said; “When fertiliser was cheap, I could buy up to five to ten bags for my farm and spray the needed quantity of herbicides and pesticides.

“Before, I bought a bag of fertiliser at the rate of between N20,000 and N22,000. But now, it costs between N35,000 and N42,000 per bag.

“Sometimes, I have to buy per measure because buying in bags is very expensive for me now.”

Majority of the smallholder women who spoke to our reporter mentioned various ways they tried to improve the yields of their farms.

A rice and millet farmer in Gusadin community in Gbako, Linda Kosu, said that she and others resorted to using refuse as fertiliser on their farms in the absence of fertiliser.

“We use refuse on our farms to improve the fertility of the soil. That is what is called organic manure. That is how we manage it.

“But we do not get enough to cover the whole land where we farm because there is not much refuse and it is what everyone packs to their farms.

“So sometimes, we cultivate half of the farms or only farm in the area the manure covers.”

A rice farmer in Doko community, Lapai LGA, Fatima Mohammed, said she uses rice and maize dusk and cow dung popularly called manure to fertilise her land and crops. “I would not say it is good or not, but it is better than not putting anything at all in the farm after we plant,” she said.

Political farmers hijack subsidies

Several smallholder farmers revealed a troubling trend, ‘political farmers,’ well-connected individuals who exploit the system, securing large quantities of subsidised inputs meant for genuine farmers, leaving the real farmers with nothing.

SWOFON coordinator in Kontagora, Ramatu Mohammed Kontagora, shared her frustration especially as she was present at the flag-off ceremony held in Minna and she had to rush back to Kontagora to inform her members that they were bringing the inputs to the local government area.

“But in the end, we still did not get anything. They said they were bringing it down to Kontagora and we should go to the ADP office in Kontagora. But on getting there, we got nothing because it has already been shared among politicians. We did not get even one bag.

“The problem is that you cannot access it if you don’t have access to those people, those politicians. There is no way you can get it.

“Yes, the fertilisers and chemicals got to Kontagora but the real farmers did not get it. They will tell you that they were given allocations, and when these officials come, they give the allocation to the politicians, which they share among their own people.

“Once you are not their people, you will not get it. At the end of the whole thing, the people who get it will resell it to the real farmers, which is us.

“Although it is still less than the one sold in the market, it is higher than the subsidised price. Like if they got it for N20,000 from the politicians, they will sell it at N30,000 or N35,000 while the market price is between N40,000 to N45,000.”

Saadatu Gambo from the Nasara Women Farmers Cooperative in Wushishi echoed these sentiments. She noted that real farmers often have to purchase subsidised inputs from those who received them through connections rather than need.

“Because they have ‘long legs’ (connection), they get these inputs. We on our part use our own money to buy from the market or from those who were given subsidised inputs.

“They sell it to us because they are not real farmers and they do not need it. What they only need is the money they would gain from selling it,” Gambo said.

Despite government efforts to streamline the distribution of subsidised inputs, the system seems to be failing. Many smallholder farmers, especially women, feel sidelined and disenfranchised.

Felicia Umaru from Lavun Local Government Area expressed her exasperation that despite being told to submit names to the local government secretariat, which they had done several times, they still did not benefit when the inputs were brought in.

She said, “Those of us in Kutigi here, especially women farmers, have not benefited from the subsidised inputs.

“Yes, the government is bringing it out, and yes, they are asking us to submit names, which we do, but sometimes before it reaches the grassroots, when it enters the hands of the politicians, we hardly get it.

“Even when we submit names, we do not know when these items are distributed or even when they are brought into town.

“We usually feel that everything begins and ends in Minna. If everyone who is a farmer says they did not get it, then who did they give it to?

“Also, look at the local government secretariat close to us here. If they are sharing something like that, some of our people will be aware and inform us.

“So everybody cannot be lying that they did not get it”, she stated.

The SWOFON coordinator in Gbako, Felicia Maaji, said they often meet the traditional leaders in their various communities accusing them of hijacking the process and not letting them have access to the fertiliser, but these leaders claim they do not know when they share it.

“We do not benefit here at all. I know because I am in contact with almost all the women farmers in this local government.

“We do not even hear about it without seeing or receiving it. If they are bringing them, that means they do not bring it out to distribute to the real farmers, and if they do bring it out, that means they share it among their own people but I and other women buy our inputs with our own money.”

How dilapidated and non-functional ADP offices lead to non-accountability of fertilisers

The reporter learnt that most of the fertiiser shared at the state capital was supposed to be distributed from the ADP offices across the states where farmers could get it via information from Extension workers. However, this has failed to get to those who really need it because several of the ADP offices across the state were in state of collapse and there were not enough extension workers to give the information to the farmers in the rural areas.

Several of the farmers spoken to acknowledged that in the past there were agricultural extension officers who helped them a lot with farming techniques and adequate information. But this is no longer the case as several of them do not know who the extension workers are or how they can get to them.

The SWOFON coordinator in Lavun said that no extension officer had been in contact with her or any of her members saying that all they do is from the knowledge they gained from their relatives and from the training they got from development partners who come once in a while to the local government.

The warehouse in Wushishi has collapsed while the farmhouse which should be staff quarters for the extension officers is dilapidated.

In Zungeru, the office structure is collapsed with some skeletal building standing, and the Zonal office in Kontagora is dilapidated with several remnants of office furniture. In Rijau, there was only a pillar showcasing that an office was there.

The women asked that if the offices and warehouses are dilapidated, where would the fertilisers and other input sent in from the state capital be stored?

“That is why we told you that we do not know how to get these inputs. Even before we hear about it, it is finished. In most cases, we do not even know when it is distributed because we do not know who to meet or where to go,” said Fatima Mohammed in Lapai.

The reporter tried to locate some of the extension officers in these local government areas but could not locate any because the women who were interviewed said they did not know any and efforts to reach out to relatives and friends to connect them to one or two met a brick wall.

The agricultural extension service is an important public service institution with the widest range of responsibilities for agricultural and rural development.

Extension officers provide advice and information to assist farmers in making decisions and generally enable them to take action.

Although farmers already have a lot of knowledge about their environment and their farming system, extension can bring them other knowledge and information which they do not have.

The transfer of knowledge and skills to farmers and their families is an important extension activity.

The African Seed Access Index (TASAI) 2020 Report rated Nigeria as one of the African countries with the lowest ratio of agricultural extension workers to farmers in Africa. The report assumed a baseline of one extension officer to 7500 farmers.

“The lower this ratio, the better access farmers have to expert information and advice on how to access and use improved seed and other relevant agricultural technologies,” the report said.

The only good building in the ADP office in Kontagora was shut when the reporter visited, while the agric desk officer at the local government secretariat was not on seat.

However, the reporter met the cashier of the local government secretariat, Mohammed Ibrahim Bello, who said that the inputs are not given directly to the secretariat but to the ADP office.

Bello said,  “In the past, that was about eight years ago, these inputs were given to the local government which handles everything and knows how to share them but now, they do not and we have heard complaints that several people do not benefit from it.

“It would be great if this is reversed back to the way it was before. They give it to the local government chairman who shares it with the real farmers through the desk officer of agriculture.

“Now, from Minna, they take it to the ADP and from the ADP, they share it, not minding whether you are a farmer or not. They give some people preference and ask others to join the queue day after day.

“Most people do not get at all even after staying in the queue for days.”

At the community level, the community leaders also say they do not  know when these inputs are shared, saying that they did not hear about when the distribution would be made.

When the reporter paid a visit to Muhammad Kudu Ibrahim, the Ezanuwa Kutigi, a traditional ruler, he was with his council of chiefs and they all said they had not received any type of government-subsidised agricultural inputs in the domain.

One of the chiefs, Jiya Lemu, said, “We have not been receiving it. We haven’t even seen the place they share it talk less of receiving it.

“The interventions we get mostly are from FADAMA and IFAD which we know are government based. But they have their own focus areas. But anyone from the state government directly, we haven’t seen that.”

Ezanuwa Kutigi said, “You have heard them all. If they have been given, at least, our people would inform them and they would inform me.

“Such things cannot be going on in my community and I would not know. If they say they bring it to the local government area, where do they take it? Who do they give it to? We also need to know.”

The village Head of Gubata in Gbako Local Government Area said that the common problem with farmers is access to fertilisers and other inputs and expressed sadness that they do not receive the government-subsidised inputs.

“Sometimes we do not hear about the subsidised agricultural inputs and sometimes we hear about them. But by the time we send our people to go and access it, they would have distributed it.

“We also found out that most of those who receive it resell it. We have sent people to these places several times but those they meet at the ward level will direct them to individuals who have received it but want to resell it so they buy from them.

“These agricultural inputs are usually given to people who do not need it, but because they are in politics or they have friends who are politicians, they have that opportunity. Power is in their hands.

“Last two years, I went to the Edozhigi ward when we were informed of availability, but with my status and efforts, at the end of the day, I could not get any.

“What we sometimes do is that because Bida is a bit far from here, we gather money from anyone interested in buying fertiliser and other inputs and one person would go to Bida to buy them.

“It is much less expensive to buy in Bida than the retailers in our community.”

The Niger State SWOFON coordinator, Grace Disa, says it is not all the ADP offices across the state that are functioning, adding that though there are extension officers who offer extension services, they are not able to reach the majority of the women in the rural areas.

“Most of my members have not benefitted from extension services. The majority of them do not even know any extension officer or agent and they do their farming activities the way they can.”

Grassroots solutions

Many farmers and community leaders believe that empowering local leaders to distribute inputs would be more effective.

The Ezanuwa Kutigi recommended that the government should give directives that the subsidised agricultural inputs be given to the community leaders who will in turn call the leaders of the farmers and give it to them for onward distribution to their members who are fellow farmers.

The village head of Gusadin in Gbako Local Government Area, John Gana, suggested that the government should leverage the trust and proximity of community leaders if the government really wants the real farmers to benefit from its interventions.

“We know our people and are close to them so, we know each and every one of them especially those who are farmers. If the inputs come through us, we can ensure they reach the real farmers,” he proposed.

“What they are doing currently is making it go through the hands of the politicians, which makes it hard to get to the farmers.

“We had a meeting with the District Head where we laid out our complaint.

“Even if it is to take the inputs to the Emirs who would give it to us for onward distribution to our people in the community, it will help a lot.”

Elizabeth Saba from Gbako agreed, emphasising the role of cooperatives. “Most farmers are in cooperatives. If the government worked with our leaders, we could distribute the inputs efficiently.

“If they can locate our leaders with the fertiliser, we will get it without any stress or struggle,” she said.

Felicial Umaru in Lavun also stated the same.

She said, “Take the example of SWOFON, we are in every local government area and we have members almost all women farmers are members of SWOFON.

“Once the people at the top ask us to submit names, they should deal with the coordinators directly as it is through these coordinators that these inputs will get to the farmers at the grassroots.

“But if they do not do this, it will still be zero. The farmers at the grassroots will not benefit from these government interventions.

“Whenever the government wants to help the people, they should follow the right channel, find the leaders in the communities and groups so that these interventions will get to the real farmers.”

We’re aware of political farmers, ready for them – Government

The managing director of the Niger State Agricultural Mechanisation Development Agency (NAMDA), Muhammad Ali Baba, acknowledged that the government is conscious of the issue of ‘political farmers’ and assured that measures are being put in place to eliminate this problem and they do not scuttle the initiative put in place for the real farmers to benefit.

“Political farmers come from where the government is. But in this new dispensation, it would not be business as usual.

“The programme we have in place would require that any beneficiary submit its cluster, ward and local government area and we will ask our extension workers to verify them through the village and district heads.

‘In this new programme we intend to start, the village heads and community leaders will be part of the verification process as they will have to vouch for and verify the farmers.

“We are conscious of the challenge and every effort is being made to mitigate it.

“We will also reinvigorate our extension workers to ensure that they begin working again as they will be the ones who will identify the farmers and ensure that every farmer at the grassroots benefits from the initiatives.”

When the reporter asked about measures taken to prevent the extension workers from compromising the process, the MD said there would be checks and balances to ensure that there is no compromise by the extension workers, “any worker that plays funny with this task will be risking his or her work. It is their job and their life and I do not think they will want to risk it.

“As the extension workers would be demanding transparency and commitment from the farmers, so also would we be demanding commitment and transparency from them.”

On the ADP offices across the state, the executive director of Operations in NAMDA, Rilwan Jibril, said that the ADP offices had been neglected by the previous government while the Extension Officers are either aged or retired adding that the current administration is working to revive the ADP offices and employ young men and women across the local government areas as extension officers.

“We are currently recruiting youths for the Agricultural Extension Volunteer scheme where three youths per ward would fill the vacuum of ageing and retiring extension workers.

“The government has also set up a committee to go around the local government areas to assess and look at ways of resuscitating the warehouses and offices of ADP across the state

Diversion stories untrue, says permanent secretary

Despite these assurances, the permanent secretary of the state Ministry of Agriculture, Mathew Ahmed, dismissed reports of diversion of the inputs distributed so far by Mohammed Umar Bago’s administration, citing the ministry’s implementation and monitoring committees.

“I want to assure you that there is no diversion of those inputs to the best of my knowledge, because the ministry staff, the store officer and security officers are all involved and will be there at the distribution centre.

“Each beneficiary will have to identify themselves before they are given the input and reports. The issue of diversion is just news that is flying, but you cannot really pin it and say this is true.

“As a ministry, we set up an implementation committee that monitors the input distribution and we also limit the number of bags or quantity that each farmer would access so that it can go around.

“The truth of the matter is that we cannot provide input on subsidies for all the farmers so we are looking at basically smallholder farmers benefiting, farmers that have one hectare and below so that it would be able to go round.

“People who are complaining about this may be those who have like five hectares so if you have five hectares, you are no longer a smallholder farmer.

“Those who are considered are the smallholder farmers, only those with one hectare can access the inputs so that other farmers will be able to key in and benefit from the subsidy.”

On the smallholder farmers not getting the information for the distribution of the inputs, Ahmed highlighted the state’s communication efforts to inform farmers about distribution schedules.

He said, “The news is always on air. We do jingles, we make announcements, it is on the social media and it is everywhere.

“It is not true for people to say they are not aware of when the inputs are distributed at the local level.

“The information is also on the radio and because we are conscious of the fact that some people may not be able to watch television due to non-access to electricity and are in the village but they can access radio, and social media, so we ensure that the information is there. The information is not only passed in English, we pass it in other Indigenous languages like Hausa, Nupe, and Gbagi so that people can understand that this is the ongoing activity.”

The permanent secretary said that farmers are discouraged from selling or diverting the inputs when they get access to it but lamented that everyone has a mind of their own, “you can only give someone advice after you leave, we cannot monitor them to their houses. But we try to monitor their various farms to ensure that it is used in their farms. Even with that, they are just samples of the farmers but we ensure that any farmer that is caught will not benefit from subsequent input distribution. These are the things we have put in place.”

He further disclosed that the sales of the inputs by the farmers is of concern to the government which is why in the new agricultural initiative of the state government, farmers who benefit from the input distribution would be paid N50,000 monthly to quell the temptation of them to sell the inputs they will be given.

“Our current Niger food arrangement with farmers which will commence soon, we are going to give the farmers minimum wage. This is because when we give a farmer fertiliser, herbicide and at the end of the day, the farmer does not have access to funds, there is this temptation to sell a bag out of the bags of fertiliser he was given or one litre of herbicides he was given so that he would have money with him. What Niger Food is trying to do is that with the input distribution to smallholder farmers, every month, they will be given N50,000 to cushion the effect of cash within the smallholder farmers.”

What next in 2024?

Despite government assurances, the stark reality for many smallholder farmers in Niger State is a continuous struggle for access to essential agricultural inputs. As the new administration promises reforms and stricter measures, it remains to be seen whether these efforts will finally address the systemic issues and ensure that the true beneficiaries receive the much-needed support.

For now, farmers like Bilikisu, Felicia and Mary continue to grapple with uncertainty, hoping for a day when the government’s promises translate into tangible support for their fields and futures.

For real progress, the government must heed the voices of the farmers and community leaders, ensuring transparency and accountability in the distribution process. Only then can the vision of sustainable agricultural support truly reach the grassroots.

This report republished from the Nation was made possible with support from the International Budget Partnership (IBP) under the ICIR Strengthening Public Accountability for Results and Knowledge (SPARK 2) Project.