Government will in the coming days approach managers of the newly commissioned Dangote Fertiliser to begin talks on a possible supply of fertilisers to the country.

This is part of measures by the government to address the fertilizer challenge, occasioned, by the Russia-Ukrainian war.

Deputy Minister for Food and Agriculture, Yaw Frimpomg Addo, disclosed this to joybusiness after joining the Mastercard Foundation and IDH to launch the grains for growth programme in Accra.

The grains for growth project is expected to support selected farmers with resources in order to strengthen the country’s grain value chain as well as create jobs for the youth.

According to the Deputy Minister of Agricultural, fertiliser will play a key role in this project, hence, the need to have regular supply in order to sustain the growth.

He is confident that the move by government to source for fertilisers locally and through Dangote will help.

“We are looking at getting fertilisers from some countries where the war hasn’t affected and also not affected by any supply challenges. For instance in Nigeria, Dangote recently launched the huge fertilizer factory. It’s a large edifice for the sub region. Ghana wanted to do something like that but not successful, due to some financial constraints even though we’re still trying to mobilise some private capital to do it”.

“So we will rely on that and also coupled with some local suppliers like Zoomlion which has begun a process to convert human waste to fertiliser in almost all the 16 regions. We are hopeful that when all comes on board, we can meet the demand if all security mechanisms are also put in place to check smuggling” he said.

Country Programme Manager for Growth Sustainable Africa, Robert Asugre who has been explaining to Joy Business on the importance of the grains for growth initiative noted that it will empower farmer to produce enough grains for the country.

The programme is expected to last for more than three years.