Northern peasant farmers call for restoration of fertilizer subsidy

Peri-Urban small holder farmers in the Northern Region are shocked over government’s removal of fertilizer subsidy. In 2008, the government of Ghana instituted a country-wide subsidy on 50 Kilogram bags of four types of fertilizer in an effort to mitigate the effect of rising energy and food prices. Farmers received the subsidy in the form of fertilizer based on region specific vouchers distributed by agricultural extension agents. The fertilizer subsidy was considered as a unique example of a public-private partnership in which the government consulted heavily with fertilizer importers in the design stage and relied exclusively on the existing private distribution system to deliver fertilizer to farmers. But in 2012, its sustainability slowed down and subsequently removed following financial constraints. This situation, according to small holder farmers in the Northern Region is affecting their yield which is negatively impacting on their livelihood. Leader of the Peasant farmers, Madam Rabi Adam called for a non-negotiable restoration of the fertilizer subsidy. She says this at a day’s stakeholders meeting on rural agriculture held in Tamale. The meeting was spearheaded by Tamale based Diamond Fm and sponsored by Donor fund Managers, Star Ghana under a project dubbed, “Tackling Bottlenecks to the Development of Rural Agriculture in the Northern Region: improving farmers’ access to Agricultural input supplies.” She appealed to government to allocate 10% of the national budget to support rural agriculture. Madam Rabi Adam suggested the establishment of farmer based credit schemes to bailout rural farmers whose source of livelihood is subsistence farming.

Source: Citi