The Deputy Food and Agricultural Minister, Yaw Addo Frimpong, has indicated the government’s plan to wean Ghanaian farmers off chemical fertilisers in favour of organic fertilisers.

This he says is in response to the soaring prices of chemical fertilisers on the global market; a phenomenon which begun with the outbreak of the Covid-19 virus and has worsened following the Russia-Ukraine war.

Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express Business Edition, he noted that currently the world is experiencing a shortage in supply of fertilisers thus contributing to the soaring prices.

According to him, this has made it difficult for the government to be able to afford its projected amount of fertiliser to support farmers and government programs like the Planting For Food and Jobs.

However, organic fertlisers were a cheaper alternative the government was eagerly exploring.

“We need to produce to feed the growing population and if you need to produce to feed the growing population, the land is depleted of its natural nutrients, and so we need to enhance it with fertilisers. Some countries are using organic fertilisers and the farmers are not so comfortable because of the application.

“You see, it’s easy to apply the chemical fertilisers and all that and they get immediate results from what they apply, and therefore, it’s become a bit difficult for some farmers to even shift to the organic fertilisers,” he said.

Explaining Ghana’s situation concerning fertiliser purchases, he said, “Even before the outbreak of this war we realized that the cost of fertilisers were going up before the outbreak. At the moment [the situation] is very bad.

“Because what we budgeted for fertilizer supplies for this year in the 2022 budget, I can tell you that the amount that we require we may not be able to supply even half of it because of the price differentials. So we’re doing some serious consideration of a whole lot of things,” he said.

He indicated the government’s resolve to actively monitor borders to ensure that the fertiliser the government is able to secure don't get smuggled out.

“So the little that we’ll get we will ensure that they don’t cross our borders like it has been the case. So what the Ministry intends doing and the discussions are still ongoing, we want to encourage the production of a lot more of the organic fertilisers because locally, there are companies that are producing organic fertilisers.

“We want to encourage them more, the Ministry is trying to encourage them, motivate them to make then to produce the organic fertilisers and then at the same time the uptake of such fertilizers will depend on the kind of education we give our farmers,” he said.

According to him, the government will invest in the local production of fertilizers for the short, medium and long term, and at the same time, provide the necessary sensitization and education to farmers needed for them to buy into the idea of organic fertilisers.