You can’t stop subsidy on agric, Erisco boss tells FG

Following report of planned removal of
subsidy from fertilizer to farmers, the
President and Chief Executive Officer of
Erisco Foods Limited, Chief Eric Umeofia,
has cautioned against the plan.
He said government around the world
even in the United States subsidizes
fertilizers for farmers, saying the Nigerian
government should not be an exception.
At a press conference over the weekend,
Umeofia advised that what the
government could do is to address the
corruption in the fertilizers’ subsidy
scheme rather than outright removal.
“I support subsidy removal on petroleum
but you cannot remove subsidy from
fertilizer or agriculture. It is unfortunate
that the subsidy regime is riddled with
corruption but government can tackle the
corruption but they cannot stop the
subsidy,” he said.
Umeofia, who spoke on the raging
scarcity of fresh tomatoes in the market
blamed the crisis on the disease called
tuta absoluta which killed most of the
fresh tomatoes before they matured. He
said the disease only comes during
climate change. He promised that his
company would address the problem if
given the required support.
He reiterated his call for the ban on
importation of tomato paste into the
country, saying local manufacturers have
the capacity to meet the country’s
demands.
“We have a lot of arable lands that are
lying fallow and we can grow a lot of
tomatoes yet we don’t want to grow,” he
added.