Peasant farmers in Ghana have expressed grave concerns about the rate of smuggling, hoarding and corruption in the handling of government’s subsidized fertilizers meant for farmers.
This follows a research conducted by the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG) where 92 percent of men and 85 percent of women peasant farmers expressed worry on smuggling while 70 percent men and 40 percent women worried about hoarding and 65 percent men with 55 percent women expressing worry on the corruption in handling the fertilizer.
Meanwhile, 40 percent men and 70 percent women also complained about collusion between sellers and members of the security agencies whereas 80 percent of men and 72 percent of women complained about farmers purchasing more than the agreed quantities.
However, the majority of the farmers who used the fertilizer commended the product for its quality while some also complained about the quantity which is lower than the amount quoted on it and the price being sold higher than the agreed price.
This was made known by Mr Bismack Nortey, Programs Officer for PFAG at a day’s sensitization workshop organized by PFAG with support from International Budget Partnership on fertilizer subsidy for peasant farmers in the Western North, Western and Central Regions.
He said shortage and the unavailability of the subsidized fertilizer during the peak of the planting periods at retail shops was a major concern to the famers and attributed it to the hoarding and commercial farmers purchasing the product in bulk quantities to the detriment of the peasant farmers.
He mentioned the absence of a transparent criteria in assigning supply quotas to specific geographical areas where suppliers can deliver the fertilizer, failure by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) to complete the farmer database registration to properly target small holder farmers and the lack of enforcement on the cap on maximum quantities to be purchased by farmers as some of the causes to the challenges.
Mr Nortey therefore urged MoFA to complete the farmer registration exercise initiated to further improve on the program and also eliminate the leakages while making information on quotas distributed by the various companies and regional and district consumption of the various fertilizer types available to the public.
Western Regional Director of Agric, Mr Patrick Akowuah urged the farmers to spray their crops with pesticides early enough to make it easy to kill the pests before they develop to a stage where it becomes difficult to kill them.
He implored the farmers to communicate their challenges to the Agric Extension Officers in their Districts on time and frequently to enable them address their concerns for an improved production.
Mr Akowuah further implored the farmers to join farmer groups or associations to enable them have access to some logistics and financial assistance to improve on their operations.
For his part, Mr Abraham Appiah, Western Regional Crops Officer mentioned delayed process documentation for payment processing resulting in payment delays by the government on the part of the facilitators and urged them to improve on the documentation processes to fast track payment and timely release of the fertilizer by government.
The farmers also pleaded with the authorities to make sure that sale points for the fertilizer was brought closer to them since they spent more on transportation in getting the product that later deterred them from cultivating large farms.
