Cocoa fertilisers: Majority’s explanation hollow – Akandoh

Juaboso MP Kwabena Mintah Akandoh has described as empty explanations given by the Majority in Parliament regarding reports of sale of fertilisers to cocoa farmers.

Majority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, at a press conference on Friday, June 23 to react to claims by the Minority that the Akufo-Addo government was selling fertilisers meant for free distribution to farmers, indicated that the Minority should stop deceiving the public in relation to developments in the cocoa sector.

For him, the country could not afford play politics with the cocoa sector, adding: “Government is not about propaganda and lies, it is about reality.”

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu had stated that farmers at Goaso and other areas who could not get fertiliser for their cocoa “indicated that even if we have to let them buy, they will buy rather than having that policy of free distribution and they not having it”.

Additionally, he explained that “regardless of the acreage of the farmer’s cocoa farm, if you have two acres they will give you a sachet of the fertiliser and if you were farming 10 acres, same sachet”.

But reacting to the Majority’s press conference during an interview with Class 91.3FM’s Valentina Ofori-Afriyie on 505 on Friday, June 23, Mr Akandoh said: “The press conference is empty. They should come back again.

“The reasons they have given cannot hold water. They are saying that because the fertiliser was not enough, due to budgetary allocations or constraints, that is why they are seeking to sell the fertiliser.

“Now what is the main purpose of the application of the fertiliser? This is in order to increase the yield on the farm, so you need to have access. If you go and sell it, you will further cut a lot of people off. It is difficult for most of the farmers in the cocoa-growing areas to even give you GHS100, so if you are a government and you have funds like the Stabilisation Fund, you go into [it], get money and buy more. You don’t take the laziest approach by saying that because there are constraints everybody should come and buy.”