Farmers in Birim Central cry over fertiliser shortage

Farmers in the Birim Central Municipality have expressed concern about shortage of government subsidized fertilizer and said this is creating a big problem for them.

The farmers have, therefore, appealed to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture as a matter of urgency to make the fertilizer available to them.

The farmers made the appeal when the Ghana News Agency (GNA visited some farming communities such as Akroso, Asantemanso, and Asuboa on Wednesday to acquaint themselves with challenges facing farmers in the area.

The GNA was at the Municipality under the media auditing and tracking of development project programme funded by STAR-Ghana, a multi-donor organization.

The project aims at improving transparency and accountability of district assemblies to people.

According to the farmers, the rainy season had begun but there was no evidence of receiving any subsidized fertilizer from the government.

Mr Ofosu Adu, a cassava farmer, told GNA that due to the absence of the subsidized fertilizer, they had been compelled to buy from retail shops at high prices.

He said a bag of subsidized fertilizer was given to the farmers at GHC51.00, but the retail price is GHC81.00.

An oil palm plantation farmer at Akyem Mnaso, Mr Kofi Acheampong, said one acre plantation farm required three bags of fertilizer and that if they were to buy them at the retail price it would be difficult for them to cultivate more acres.

He appealed to the authorities to come to their aid since this is the best time to get the fertilizers.

Mr Acheampong said that there was low usage of fertilizers by farmers in the country because they were unable to afford it, and that government subsidy on fertilizer was also too low.

Suggesting the way forward, he said that the government should encourage banks to provide the farmers with guarantees and create more distribution channels in remote areas to increase access to farmers.

He also suggested that the government should take advantage of the by-products from Ghana’s crude oil production and establish fertilizer production plant in the country.

Later in an interview with Mr Prosper Kojo Klu, the Officer in Charge of fertilizer application at the Department of Agriculture in the Birim Central Municipality confirmed the concerns of the farmers.

He said this year his outfit was expecting 5000 bags of subsidized fertilizer to be distributed to farmers in the area but only 250 bags had been received.

Mr Klu said what made the situation serious was the fact that the rest of the fertilizer would arrive late, and the farmers might not need it since the rainy season might be over.

He said the high retail price was as results of the unavailability of the government subsidized one and the farmers are always forced to buy.

Mr Klu said the situation was likely to affect yield this year and, therefore, appealed to the Ministry of Agriculture to make the fertilizers available to them to distribute them to the farmers.

The Fertilizer Subsidy Programme (FSP) was instituted to help farmers increase their rate of fertilizer application as means of increasing crop yield.