Halt sale of fertilizers to cocoa farmers; its a cheat – NDC MPs tell government

The Minority NDC caucus in Parliament is accusing the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo led government of cheating cocoa farmers by asking them to buy fertilizers which have already been paid for by the previous NDC government.

According to them, the Mahama administration prior to the determination of the producer price of cocoa made provision for the purchase of 2.2 million bags of granular fertilizer and 1.6million litres of liquid fertilizer to fertilize over 1million hectares of cocoa farms free of charge to the farmer in the 2016/2017 cocoa season.

Addressing journalists at a news conference in Accra over the issue, the Ranking Member on Food, Agriculture and Cocoa Affairs, Hon Eric Opoku, said it baffles their imagination why the government will turn around to sell the already paid for fertilizers to the cocoa farmer.

The NPP government has replaced the free fertilization program introduced by the previous NDC government with a program under which farmers pay GH¢80.00 for a bag of fertilizer.

This initiative, according to the government is meant to halt or bring to an end the smuggling of subsidized fertilizers to neighboring countries.

With the new program, a cocoa farmer who has 100 hectares of cocoa farm and was therefore entitled to 750 bags (7.5 bags of granular fertilizer per hectare) is expected to pay GH¢60,000 for the same 750 bags of fertilizer.

This the Minority NDC considers is a slap in the face of the cocoa farmers.

“We want to emphasize that cocoa farmers have indirectly through the producer price determination formulae used for the 2016/17 cocoa season paid for the fertilizer. Selling the same fertilizer to the same farmer is a broad day robbery. We are therefore urging the NPP government to be sensitive to the plight of the Ghanaian cocoa farmer by halting the sale of the fertilizer and revert to the NDC’s free fertilization program for the 2016/17 cocoa season”, noted Hon. Opoku.