Tough Measures Outlined to Stop Abuse of Fertilizer Subsidies – Agric Minister

Farmers who have had to depend on the Government’s fertilizer subsidy program under the flagship Planting for Food and Jobs initiative, have had the occasion to complain bitterly in the past about the difficulty in getting access to the fertilizers at all, let alone at the subsidized prices.

Some claimed that some miscreants in the society were taking advantage of the subsidy program to make quick money in connivance with some of the authorities by smuggling the commodity to the neighboring countries to the detriment of the local Ghanaian farmer.

However, briefing Members of Parliament on Thursday, January 27, 2022, in an answer to a Parliamentary question filed by the Member of Parliament for Kwadaso, Dr. Kingsley Nyarko, the Minister for Food and Agriculture indicated that Government is adopting multiple strategies to stop the abuse and to ensure that the subsidies go to the people they are meant for.

“Mr. Speaker, to eliminate any possible abuse of subsidized fertilizer facility, a farmer database has been developed with biometric information; a feature for tracking fertilizer bags; and a subsidy reduction solution with inbuilt security features such as TIN duplication, token verification, and biometric authentication before fertilizer subsidies are disbursed to farmers.

“To date, 1.2 million farmers have been registered in all regions within the Northern belt of the country. A total of 3 million farmers have also been targeted for registration in the Southern region of the country as soon as practicable. The database will ensure proper targeting of fertilizer and seed subsidy beneficiaries and prevent smuggling,” he said.

Dr. Kingsley Nyarko’s urgent question was to find out from the Minister, the measures his Ministry has put in place to address the complaint of farmers about the unavailability and high prices of fertilizers, and to ensure the availability of fertilizers in the 2022 crop season.

The Food and Agriculture Minister who also happens to be the immediate past Member of Parliament for the Kwadaso constituency, acknowledged in his answer that several reasons accounted for the shortage of fertilizers to farmers in the past.

The reasons he enumerated Included: the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on supply chains resulting in sharp increases in prices of fertilizers on the market; the general increase in freight charges due to the slowdown in economic activities in the wake of the pandemic; the delays in the payment of supplies made by participating fertilizer companies by Government during the 2020 cropping season; and finally, the inability of companies to secure credit facilities to finance their businesses due to the effects of the pandemic on business activities.

The indefatigable Agric Minister, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto however indicated in the end that, “Notwithstanding these challenges, the Ministry worked tirelessly in collaboration with participating companies to ensure availability of subsidized fertilizers to farmers albeit not always in desired quantities.

“Largely, this has ensured that the production of food crops in the country has been stable without adverse impact on the nation’s food security.”

Source: Clement Akoloh||parliamentnews360.com