As part of measures to help curb the smuggling of fertilizer, the Upper West Regional Security Council has placed a ban on transporting fertilizer at night following the smuggling of some 13,500 bags of subsidised government fertilizer to Burkina Faso.

According to the Chairman of the Council, Dr Hafiz Bin Salih, the fertilizer smuggled to Burkina on June 8, 2021, valued at ¢¢1,620,000, is worrying.

One major challenge faced by the Planting for Food and Jobs Programme introduced by government in 2017 is the smuggling of farm inputs by accredited input dealers into neighbouring countries especially Burkina Faso.

The Upper West Region hogged the headlines for the wrong reasons for the sea of subsidised government that were smuggled into Burkina Faso by some accredited government input dealers.

The region at the time was described as the fertilizer smuggling headquarters of the country, prompting a visit by the Minister of Food and Agriculture to the Region, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, to put a lid on it.

Three years after the visit, it appeared some of the accredited input dealers have not turned over a new leaf.

"We got intelligence that smuggling of fertilizer was taking place in the Sisaala west. We, however, got alarmed when we got the information that on June 8, this year, about 45 Rhino trucks carted fertilizer, each carrying about 300 bags of government subsidised fertilizer, and this is worrying," Dr Bin Salih revealed.

Dr Bin Salih, addressing input dealers and major stakeholders in the agriculture sector at Tumu announced measures taken by the Upper West Regional Security Council to curb smuggling of the fertilizer.

“All farming inputs coming into the Region, first of all, must report to my office [Upper West Regional coordinating council] for us to know the vehicle coming, the quantity of fertilizer carrying and the destination…once they get into Sissala East or West, we expect the consignment to be off loaded into a warehouse. We will not allow any long vehicle to be distributing fertilizer, that will not happen,” he stated.

He also announced timelines to track the movement of vehicles carrying fertilizer.

''The movement of vehicles carrying fertilizer is 6 am to 6 pm. Any time after this we will confiscate the fertilizer and action the vehicle''.

He urged all accredited input dealers doing genuine business to continue and encouraged them to help fish out the miscreants among them.

He said the Planting for Food and Jobs programme has benefitted the good people of the Sissala West and East and that impacted positively on the economies of these areas.

"Those of you doing genuine business, you have nothing to fear but those of you who engage in nefarious activities, criminal activities, please know that we will come after you,” he warned.