I was surprised and totally shocked when I read that the planting for food and Job initiative is struggling to survive. I started asking myself several questions as to why such a laudable initiative by the Agriculture Ministry could be struggling like that.
After a thorough reading, I realized that aside the ministry finding it very difficult to pay its partners and suppliers, the subject matter is unavailability of Fertilizer to promote the said initiative. But the problem is, is the fertilizer the only alternative? Can it not be replaced with any other thing to make the Planting for Food and Jobs run smoothly?
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I have had an opportunity to work in a poultry farm for the past few years, and one very thing I realized is that, most Farmers are taking advantage of the manure or the droppings from the poultry. This is the traditional method that has been proven to be effective for several years. There are some of these organic manures that go waste as a result of not getting enough Farmers to purchase and the poultry Farmers are not able to preserve it so in the end, it goes waste. Droppings from the cattle, sheep, goats, and poultry can be easily be purchased by the Ministry, preserved and transformed into a more appropriate products that can be distributed or shared among the Farmers.
The Ministry must spend time to educate Farmers as to how best they can apply the organic manure and droppings from the animals. In doing so, I believe the Planting for Food and Jobs would be on its feet despite the unavailability of fertilizer to support it. A laudable initiative like Planting for Food and Jobs should be able to survive for a long times.
May God bless our Homeland Ghana, and make Her Great and Strong.
By Justice Phinehas Gyesi
The Writer can be reached on gyesijusticephinehas@gmail.com