Story By: Rahamatu-Lahi Zakaria || Sanatu Zambang
The Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG), on Tuesday, 11th May 2021 held a workshop to sensitized smallholder farmers on the 2021 Fertilizer Subsidy Programme (FSP). The purpose was to engage farmers on the implementation guidelines being rolled-out by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) to feed farmers the right information and the guidelines to follow in acquiring the government subsidized fertilizer and seeds.
The sensitization workshop was organized by Savannah Women Integrated Development Ghana (SWIDA-GH) in partnership with the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG) and the International Budget Partnership. The other partner included the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.
The FSP is meant to support smallholder farmers to purchase adequate fertilizer for their farms under the government’s flagship programme, Planting for Food. The implementation modalities is to ensure efficiency and value for money under 2021 PFJ Campaign.
Speaking at the smallholder forum, Dr Charles Kwowe Nyaaba, Head of Programmes and Advocacy at the PFAG mentioned the challenges that FSP was facing and called on a collective commitment from all to mitigate the problem so it can help those that it was initial meant for.
A major concerned he said that all the farmers agreed to at the forum was pricing. The price for the fertilizers and seeds were high for these smallholder farmer. Some of the challenges also included smuggling, hoarding, diversion and poor targeting of beneficiaries hindering the smooth implementation of the programme.
While Mr Dauda Abdul Salam, the Northern Regional Crop Officer, in a presentation outlined the guidelines for the distribution of fertilizer for both the retailers and the farmers. The guidelines are; all fertilizers will be bagged in sacks with PFJ labels/logo, liquid fertilizers must be packaged with PFJ logo and inscriptions, all fertilizers to be sold under 2021 the PFJ will be bagged in 25kg bags in the 16 regions of the country, participating fertilizer companies who will furnish MOFA with purchasing agreements from other companies must at all times invite MOFA to take stocks of the fertilizers before distribution commence
The rest are; copies of waybills on all fertilizer consignments must be submitted to Regional Ministers or their representatives for endorsement before offloading or sending to the districts/communities, at the districts and community levels, copies of waybills of all fertilizer consignments must be submitted to MMDCEs for endorsement.
