News:
August 5, 2021
The Minority of Parliament, Mr. Haruna Iddrisu has asked the Minister of Finance, Mr Ken Ofori Atta to work together with the Minister of Agriculture to help secure fertilizers to farmers across the country.
Making a statement on the floor of parliament on Tuesday August 3, 2021, in respect of the mid-year budget statement presented to parliament by the finance minister, the minority leader noted that farming is a seasonal business and this is the time the farmers need the fertilizers for their crop production, hence the inability of government to make the fertilizers available at the appropriate time will negatively affect production.
And more importantly, he said not providing the fertilizers at the right time amount to some form of causing financial loss, since the purpose of spending money on the fertilizers could not be realized.
“I will urge with the minister for Finance to work with his partner minister for Agriculture to make funds available to fertilizer suppliers so that these products are made available to poor Ghanaian farmers”
He also criticized government for making too much noise about their flagship programme, ‘Planting for Food and Job, (PFJ) stating that the government has not been able to manage the initiative well because its impact cannot be felt following the high prices of maize, and other farm produce which were supposed to be produced under the PFJ initiative.
He noted that not only are prices of farm produce very outrageous in the country, but it is even worse when the commodities are simply not available for people to buy. And warned that if steps are not taken to address the fertilizer situation now, it would spell dire consequences for food security in the not too long future of the country.
He said since the finance minister in his address indicated that the Ministry has procured and distributed 4600 metric tons of improved seeds, and 120,000 metric tons of fertilizer, they cannot wait until the farming season is over before giving them to the farmers.
Poultry farmers in recent times have had cause to complain about the non-availability of maize in the country and how it was running down their businesses and appealed to government to take steps to make the product readily available and at affordable prices to help them sustain their business.
Dominic Shirimori/Ghanamps.com