Ghana is set to develop a fertiliser manufacturing plant aimed to produce fertilisers locally to meet the rising demand of farmers.
Head of Results Delivery at the Office of the President, Nana Serwaa Amoako revealed the plans and noted the looming fertiliser shortage is a global issue which the government will address with both short and long-term plans. Discussions are ongoing to establish the plant to support the National Fertiliser Subsidy Programme as well as reduce the shortage of fertilisers on the market.
“There are both short-term and long-term plans that the government is putting in place to address fertiliser shortage. Short-term plans would be how we can still collaborate with international stakeholders to make fertilisers available. The Minister for Agriculture and his team are working on that.”
Long-term plans
“For the long-term plans, that’s where the Ghana Fertiliser Expansion Programme comes in. A team was set up in 2018 and has been working tirelessly to develop feasibility studies to develop a fertiliser manufacturing plant using our local natural gas. This plant will also be part of the newly created petroleum hub,” she said.
Meanwhile, Director of Crop Services at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Seth Osei- Akoto said the ministry is setting up a team to educate farmers on the use of organic fertilisers. According to him, this will be a great alternative to sustain production whenever there’s shortage in fertilisers.
“Alternatively, we also have organic fertilisers. We have different forms of organic fertilisers and some of these organic fertilisers are manufactured locally. We also recognise that there is a challenge with the use of organic fertilisers. That is why as a ministry, we need to come out with a programme as an alternative in case inorganic fertilisers become challenging that suppliers cannot afford to distribute the quantity needed, we’ll fall on organic fertlisers,” he said.
The Visualising Insights on Fertiliser for African Agriculture Dashboard is a website designed to address the use of fertilizer data in Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya.
