Some farmers in the Western region have cautioned government to target its subsidized fertilizer directly at Ghanaian farmers to prevent the commodity from being smuggled out of the country.
The Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto recently announced a 50 percent slash in the prices of compound fertilizer from 85 cedis to 57.50 cedis.
He added that the price of urea was pegged at GH¢47.50 pesewas instead of the GH¢80 it was previously been sold.
Lauding the initiative, a onetime National Best Farmer for Palm oil plantation and CEO of B-Bovid farms, Issa Ouedraogo maintained that government must put in stringent measures to allow only Ghanaians to have access to the subsidized fertilizer.
“If the government is going to subsidize with tax payers money then there should be some measures to prevent people from buying it and selling it to neighborhood countries or to prevent people buying it and making profit on it,” he argued.
He added that “If the foreign farmers are operating here and are taking their profit back home,[then] why should they benefit from the subsidy”.
He however stated that government can go into a special arrangement with foreign farmers operating in the country to cede a portion of their produce for the country in exchange for the subsidized fertilizer.
“The government can say because we have these foreign investors here and they are helping us in these areas or there we can allow you to buy a certain quantity of the subsidized fertilizer,” he stressed.
“If that can be well defined, they can also benefit from the subsidized fertilizer. then that is fine. That would be government’s policy, but if there is nothing like that in place then we shouldn’t allow a multinational who is operating and has taken about 20 acres of our land to benefit from our taxes.
Mr. Ouedraogo maintained that it is important for government to protect Ghanaians from been stampeded by multinational farms operating in Ghana.
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By: Lawrence Segbefia/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana