Government has been commended for its effort towards addressing the fertilizer shortage across the country.
An Agricultural Development Expert, Emmanuel Wullingdool, said while the intervention may have been a bit late, most crops would recover with minimal damage due to the availability of the fertilizers and the resumption of the rains.
Speaking to GBC at Wa, Mr Wullingdool said the issue of fertilizer shortage may have arisen due to the lack of financial commitment on the part of government to the agricultural sector.
He also blamed the inability of the Ministry for Food and Agriculture to recoup monies invested acquiring inputs under the Planting for Food and Jobs programme.
Mr Wullingdool said even more worrying is the fact that a good part of funds used to drive the agriculture sector comes from donor and development partners citing the Modernising Agriculture in Ghana (MAG) progromme funded by the Canadians.
“It is better late than never. There are different types of farmers; you have the large scale and the small scale. Secondly, we do not have a uniform planting period. There are some people who still need the product even though it is coming late. Those who planted early and needed it at a particular time may lose out. We need to know that a lot of these inputs are time bound.”
“It also has to do with commitment. Agricultural budgets over the years have not received the needed attention. You will realize that a lot of the funding that comes in is donor funding,” he said.
Mr Wullingdool who doubles as the Managing Director of the Wullingdool Consultancy encouraged government to make good use of the data from the recent Agriculture Census conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service.
“Data has always been an issue when it comes to targeting inputs and all of that. With the completion of the Agriculture Census and the report published by the Ghana Statistical Service, one would have thought the report would guide in the decision making process to ensure that such a situation [shortage of fertilizers] will not arise. We cannot say we do not have the data,” he explained.
Mr Wullingdool urged government to prioritise the agriculture sector.
Story filed by Mark Smith.
