Sokoto State Government said on Wednesday it had procured 25,000 metric tons of fertiliser for sale to irrigation farmers at subsidised rate.

Gov. Aminu Tambuwal, who made the disclosure while flagging-off the sales in Sabon Birni Local Government Area of the state, said the fertiliser would be sold to farmers at N4,000 per bag.

He added that the farmers would also get improved seeds and chemicals, in addition to the drilling of 1, 000 tube wells.

“We have bought 500,000 bags of fertiliser at the cost of N6, 800 per 50kg bag but we have decided to sell the product to our farmers at the subsidised cost of N4,000 per bag.

“In all, we are spending the sum of N1.4 billion to subsidise the product.

“This intervention becomes necessary in view of our determination to boost agriculture in the state and encourage new entrants into the sector.

“We will continuously explore other avenues to grow the agricultural sector bearing in mind that it is the largest employer of labour for majority of our citizens,” he said.

The governor also said quality rice seeds had been bought by the government at the cost of N281 million to be distributed free to dry season farmers.

Tambuwal added that another N9.5 million worth of seedlings for carrot, onion, water melon and garlic have been bought to assist the farmers improve their yields at the end of the 2018 cropping season.

“This  is in addition to payment of N20 million counterpart funding to the State Agricultural Development Project for the provision of tube wells to farmers and motorcycles to monitoring officers in 2017.

“The government has paid N40 million as counterpart funding to the International Fund for Agricultural Development, and N56 Million for the World Bank funded Fadama III project, which are all aimed at improving farming activities in the state,” he added.