Expedite action on free fertiliser programme - farmers, fishers association urges govt
The National Farmers and Fishers Association of Ghana (NFFAWAG) has appealed to the government to, as a matter of urgency, start the free fertiliser programme which aims at distributing fertilisers to cocoa farmers in the country free of charge.
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According to the Chairman of NFFAWAG, Nene Davies Narh Korboe, who addressed the media in Accra, “the rainy season has started and our members across Ashanti, Brong Ahafo and Western regions are worried that they have not yet received their allocation of fertilisers.”
He said further delay in getting the free fertilisers in the wake of the current climate change may affect the cropping season since the rains have started quite early this year.
No fertiliser
Nene Korboe stated that although staff of COCOBOD gave farmers forms to fill late last year, no fertiliser has being sent to the distribution centres.
“Last year, even though farmers received free fertilisers, we also know for sure that not all farmers benefited from the programme,” he said.
He said NFFAWAG was appealling to COCOBOD to extend this laudable initiative by the government and also the mass cocoa spraying exercise to cover all cocoa farmers since this would increase the volumes of beans for export thereby translating it into increased foreign exchange earnings for the country.
To this end, Nene Korboe said NFFAWAG, is therefore, making a clarion call on the chief executive officer and management of COCOBOD to, as a matter of urgency, deliver the free fertilisers and other agro inputs to cocoa farmers as promised in order to benefit from the full cycle of the rains.
Fertiliser contract
The group, he also said, believed that awarding of fertiliser contracts and other agro inputs across the board in that sector should be looked into.
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“COCOBOD, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the Standard Board Authority, the Environmental Protection Authority and the security agencies should as a matter of urgency weed off all quack agro input dealers from the system since farmers can’t compromise their farms with such inputs and their activities which largely contribute negatively to the decline in agriculture in the country,“ he added.
He expressed the group’s gratitude to the government, COCOBOD and the consumers of cocoa products for their support and friendship so far.
The association, Nene Korboe said supports “COCOBOD’s effort to prevent some of our members engaged in smuggling the inputs which will jeopardise the interest of the state, but we also believe the timely delivery of such inputs will largely curtail smuggling since the farmers will be compelled to use them on their farms”.