The Centre for African Leaders in Agriculture (CALA) and Agricellence has called on the government to consider the need to promote organic fertilizers under the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) version 2.

According to the group leader of Agricellence, Salley Alhassan, the use of organic fertilizers by farmers in Ghana comes with many benefits to improve productivity and enhance food security.

He said the organic fertilizer, produced locally from plant or animal residues, besides mitigating the challenges linked with synthetic fertilizers, also creates job and income opportunities for farmers and producers.

He said it helps improve the land for better yields with no side effects as it is environmentally friendly.

“The external fertilizers are expensive and not reliable”, he noted.

Mr Alhassan further said the organic fertilizer "releases slowly with residual effects on subsequent crop production, contributes to nature rather than disturbs it, with the capacity to restore and maintain the soil matter, fertility, structure, and water holding", among others.

He explained that the recent challenges the over-reliance on inorganic fertilizers posed for farmers due to Covid-19 and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war cannot be allowed to continue, especially when there is an alternative – organic fertilizers which have proven to be effective and reliable.

He further said the premium placed on organic agriculture harvest in the Western countries is a further indication of the essence of organic fertilizer, hence the need for the government of Ghana to prioritize its use in the next phase of the PFJ initiative, while farmers also adopt its use.

Mr Salley Alhassan, who is also the Berekum East Municipal Agriculture Director, made the call at a sensitization forum in Berekum for selected farmers in the Bono Region on the importance of organic fertilizers and how to make local compost.

He explained that yield reports from their demonstration fields, where organic fertilizers were used, indicated that some fields produced better and more yields than fields where inorganic fertilizers were used.

“We have tried and tested it and have realized that organic fertilizers are good,” he said and added, “So we want the government to adopt more of the organic fertilizers over the inorganic fertilizers”.

He also advised farmers farming between 0.5 and 1 acre of land to try and produce their compost from residuals by applying the knowledge acquired.

Berekum East Municipal Chief Executive Kofi Adjei, on his part, said there would be enhanced productivity if farmers embraced the use of organic fertilizers with the support of the government.

He appealed to the farmers to adhere to the teachings of the Agriculture Extension Officers to improve their livelihoods and the betterment of the country.

Some farmers who are into maize and vegetable crop farming expressed satisfaction with the aftermath of using organic fertilizer.

“I used organic fertilizer last year, and the yields were good. This year, I planted on the same land, and I am still benefiting from the fertilizer used last year. It’s amazing, and I encourage other farmers to use it”, Beatrice Afrakomah, a maize farmer at Bidan, said.

Felix Betuk, a vegetable farmer at Anyinasu, said it is his wish that every farmer will also use organic fertilizer and experience the enormous yields he continues to enjoy from its usage.

“What I like most about it is the no side effect on my crops”, he said.

The sensitization forum, supported by the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa, AGRA, had Angela Adzika, Hamza Paul Fuseini, Nene Akwetey-Kodjoe, and Oxford Osei Bonsu as the other team members of the Action Learning Project of Agricellence Ghana.