The Chamber of Fertilizer (Cof) – Ghana, an advocacy service for farmers, has urged government to call a stakeholder’s meeting to address challenges of last year’s fertilizer distribution ahead of the 2022 farming seasons.
The Chamber appealed to Government to engage key stakeholders from the planning stage through to the award of contracts, distribution, monitoring and evaluation to address issues of shortage ahead of the 2022 season.
The Chamber expressed readiness to work with all stakeholders from production to the end users to shape the farming industry by finding solutions and challenges confronting the sector.
Mr Prince Akoto-Adipah, the Chief Executive Officer, Cof – Ghana, in a statement copied to Plan B News said, “we have keenly observed with much interest, the events that characterized the delays and shortages in this year’s fertilizer distribution to farmers under the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) programme, which has affected crop yield, posing food security threats in the coming year.”
The statement also noted that while Government had complained about the smuggling of fertilizer to neighbouring countries, some major suppliers had complained about the non-payment by Government for fertilizers supplied in the previous year amounting to over GHS600.00 million and said those challenges must not recur.
It observed that agriculture, being the backbone of the economy, had been short-changed with unrealistic and inconsistent policies by successive governments, making the country poorer or less performing in a sector which had the potential to solve the teeming youth unemployment and said it was time to change the negative narrative.
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