Vice President Dr. Bawumia has directed the Ghana Cocoa Board COCOBOD to purchase all fertilizers meant to be supplied to cocoa farmers locally next year since local fertilizer companies have the capacity to supply them.
According to Dr Bawumia, the country has enough fertilizer factories in operation. These factories are well capable to provide fertilizer for Cocoa farming and to meet local demands of COCOBOD.
Fertilizer supplies are to be made via “fertilizer for Cocoa” channel through the government’s flagship programme of “One-District, One Factory”
The Vice President’s comment comes on the back of the commission of fertilizer companies in Ghana under the government’s flagship programme “One-District, One Factory” this year.
In August 2019, Vice President Dr Bawumia commissioned Ghana’s largest fertilizer processing company, Glofert Fertilizer.
For fertilizer for Cocoa farming , the company prides itself with the production of fertilizer which will suit the various soil types for the cultivation of crops.
The move is also part of the government’s flagship one district, one factory policy.
The 4.5 million dollar facility aims to ensure food security with the provision of excellent yields of farmers.
Fertilizer processing company commssioned
The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia at the inauguration of Glofert in Accra touted the numerous benefits to accrue to the state with the establishment of the facility coupled with its provision of jobs for residents and people with other skills sets.
“Today I’d want to challenge the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the COCOBOD that with the coming on stream of Glofert, we know that the fertilizer blending plant in Ghana can meet our total demand and have excess capacity. We therefore do not have any reason to be further importing more and more fertilizer and wasting our foreign exchange in doing so,” the Vice President said at the inauguration.
Glofert, produces fertilizer comprising, urea, ammonium, sulphate as well as various types of Nitrogen, Phosphate and Potassium (NPK) which are widely used by farmers in Ghana and across the West African sub-region.
Also, President Akufo-Addo early this month commissioned the OmniFert Fertilizer Factory, a wholly-owned Ghanaian fertilizer manufacturing company in Tema.
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However, in August 2019, five persons were arrested by the Police in Somanya for transporting over 4,000 bags of smuggled fertilizers meant for cocoa farmers in the Western region.
fertilizer for Cocoa farming Smmugled
They were caught at Asomdwoe Krom, a suburb of the Eastern region town, offloading one of the trucks with registration number GM 206-17 in a private residence.
Elsewhere, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in July suspended nine Municipal and District Assemblies in four northern regions from engaging in the retail haulage and distribution of the Government’s subsidised fertilizers under the Planting for Food and Jobs programme.
The ban was necessitated by constant reports of infractions, misappropriations and alleged smuggling of subsidized fertilizers to neighbouring countries.
