Benue Bets Big on Farming: Alia Rolls Out Cheaper Fertilizer / More Land for Bigger Harvests

Iorfa Akpen

Governor Hyacinth Alia stepped onto the stage in Makurdi today and made it clear: Benue is not playing small with farming this year. The 2026 Fertilizer and Farm Inputs flag-off just kicked off, and the message was all about scale.

The headline move is price relief. Fertilizer now costs Benue farmers ₦28,000 per bag. That’s a 51% cut. The state government is covering the rest so farmers don’t get crushed by rising input costs.

But Alia didn’t frame this as just another seasonal handout. He called it policy with direction. The idea is simple: pull more land together, get better tools into farmers’ hands, and turn more acres into actual food and income.

Benue has long carried the nickname “Food Basket of the Nation.” Alia said keeping that title means upgrading how we farm. That means quality fertilizer, better seeds, herbicides that work, and systems that actually support the person tilling the soil.

The distribution won’t stop at Makurdi. All 23 local government areas are on the list for 2026. The plan includes tighter checks to make sure bags reach real farmers, not middlemen. Diversion, he warned, will not be tolerated.

More land under cultivation means more inputs needed. So the administration increased the total volume of fertilizer and related supplies. The goal is to match supply with the growing number of farmers and the expanded plots from the land aggregation push.

Fertilizer is only one piece. Alia laid out a wider plan: rural roads to move crops faster, irrigation for dry season farming, and agro-processing centers to cut post-harvest losses. The state also wants more youths and women running agribusinesses, with training to back it up.

For farmers, the ask was direct: show up and use the program. The state is putting resources on the table, but results depend on people actually planting, managing inputs well, and treating farming like the business it is.

For officials, the warning was sharper. Alia told the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security to run the process with transparency and fairness. No shortcuts, no favoritism. Accountability is part of the design, not an afterthought.

The Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security, Hon. Benjamin Ashaver, backed that up. He said the days of low-grade fertilizer quietly entering the system are over. Enforcement teams are in place, and anyone trying to bypass the rules will face consequences.

So the pitch for 2026 is bigger farms, lower input costs, and stricter oversight. If it works, Benue’s fields get larger, harvests get heavier, and rural incomes get stronger. Alia’s administration is betting that aggregation plus access can shift the whole equation.