Following is the prepared text of a speech by Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, Minister of Agriculture, during a press conference at State House, the office and residence of the president of Nigeria.

When the story of 10 million phones costing 60 billion naira for Nigerian farmers first made the headlines, I immediately put out a press release denying that the Ministry of Agriculture was planning to spend such a huge amount of money on cell phones.

Since then, I have read several comments on the Internet and in the newspapers and I find that it is necessary for me to enlighten the public about what the ministry of agriculture has been doing to help our farmers. It is also important to explain why it is necessary for farmers to own cell phones and how we intend to finance our plan to distribute cell phones to them.

When I came on board as minister of agriculture in July of 2011, I found a corrupt and totally inefficient fertilizer sector. The government was spending huge amounts of money on direct procurement and distribution of subsidized fertilizer, but less than 11% of farmers got the fertilizers. Some of the fertilizers paid for by government were never delivered to the warehouses. Some of the fertilizer delivered contained more sand than fertilizer while a large portion of the fertilizer subsidized by government found its way across our borders to neighboring countries where it was sold at prevailing market prices.

Middle men and rent seekers were the ones benefiting from the billions of naira spent every year on fertilizer subsidies.  The same applied to the seed sector. Middle men and briefcase contractors masquerading as seed companies were doing brisk business supplying seed to government. The problem was a large portion of the seeds being sold to government was grain bought on the open market corruptly sold as certified seed.

It was clear to me that we needed to end this corrupt system if we are to have any hope at all of freeing Nigerian farmers from the shackles of rent seekers and opportunists who have for decades disempowered the farmers and hampered the growth of the sector.

The more government was spending on fertilizer subsidies, the more rural poverty increased and the more agricultural productivity declined.