The Ghana Agriculture and Rural Development Journalists Association (GARDJA) has appealed to the Minister for Agriculture to prioritize a lot of farmers in the implementation of Government’s Fertiliser Subsidy Programme.
The group asked for proper coordination of the management of the entire subsidy scheme (from fertilizer import bidding contracts to distribution) with the existing farmer groups to ensure that the light beneficiaries are getting them.
Notable farmer groups are Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana, National Farmers and Fishermen Award Winners Association, Ghana National Farmers and Fishermen Association, among others which have members across the country and well-structured management systems at the regional and district levels.
A petition signed by President of GARDJA,Richmond Frimpong said there was the need to set up a committee to review the operations of the Fertilizer Subsidy Programme since it was launched in 2008. The committee should evaluate the modus operandi of the scheme and make appropriate recommendations for changes for the benefit of ordinary farmers.
Smuggling and theft
GARDJA urged the Minister to work with the Minister for Interior and Attorney General to bring those who have been involved in the smuggling and theft of subsidized fertilizers to book, so this serves a deterrent to others.
Mr. Frimpong said GARDJA spent a latter part of 2020 and early 2021, gathering perspectives from farmers across the country on what their major challenges that need attention were. Chief among them was the issue of fertilizer subsidy which has emerged top of the list of farmers’ major concerns.
He said “We gather that annually, government allocated about 207 million Ghana Cedi for the scheme to import fertilizers which are subsequently supposed to be sold to farmers at 50% of the original market price. But the farmers say they are not benefiting raising questions about where exactly the subsidized fertilizers go.
There is so much that we’ve heard in our engagements with farmers on why they are not benefiting from the scheme. Alleged corruption, poor management, outright stealing and smuggling are but a few of the factors.
We were shocked at recent disclosures by the Planting for Food and Jobs Secretariat that Ghana lost a whopping 120 million Ghana Cedis from unaccounted for subsidised fertilizers, diversion of coupons and smuggling in the 2017 and 2018 planting season alone.
This is obviously a threat to the sustainability of the fertilizer subsidy scheme and a threat to the nation’s food security as a whole. Productivity on a lot of our farms remain low and that is obviously a source of worry. Increased application of fertilizers remain key if we will see better productivity on our farm fields.”
