Mr. Kwesi Ahwoi, Agriculture Minister
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20th July, 2010
Govt Approves GH¢32m As Fertilizer Subsidy
THE government yesterday announced a GH¢32 million subsidy package on fertilizer for this year’s farming season.
Under the package, farmers of all categories throughout the country are to receive a total of 100,000 metric tonnes of fertilizer.
The subsidy to be paid government is at an average rate of GH¢16.00 per bag of 50 kilogrammes.
A Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture, Nii Amasah Namoale who announced this at a news conference in Accra said that measures were aimed at enhancing productivity so as to increase food production and revenue generation of farmers.
In order to achieve the government’s objective, he said government will absorb the port handling charges, loading and transport cost as well as agents commission and margins for the fertilizer companies to arrive at prices that were affordable to small scale farmers.
He said government will also adopt an open market sales policy that would ensure that each type of fertilizer was sold at the same price across the entire country by the fertilizer companies.
In order to guarantee both productivity and output increases, he said government will open up the scheme in such a way that would ensure all categories of farmers would have equal access to fertilizers at a uniform price.
The Deputy Minister said the coupon system used to administer the subsidy in 2008/2009 would no more be entertained this year because of high overhead and administrative costs as well as the diversion of fertilizers from the intended beneficiaries.
Instead, he said, a way bill system with inbuilt monitoring controls to ensure proper implementation has been introduced, adding that a way bill receipt system will be employed in the distribution and sale of the fertilizers.
Nii Namoale said government has urged the fertilizer companies to open their own shops in the regions and sell directly to farmers alongside the distributors as part of measures to solve the problem of farmers inability to get adequate fertilizer during the peak planning season.
While government was considering the importation of fertilizer companies to increase the credit threshold of the distributors, all in an effort to solve the problem of shortage in the system.
Under the package, farmers of all categories throughout the country are to receive a total of 100,000 metric tonnes of fertilizer.
The subsidy to be paid government is at an average rate of GH¢16.00 per bag of 50 kilogrammes.
A Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture, Nii Amasah Namoale who announced this at a news conference in Accra said that measures were aimed at enhancing productivity so as to increase food production and revenue generation of farmers.
In order to achieve the government’s objective, he said government will absorb the port handling charges, loading and transport cost as well as agents commission and margins for the fertilizer companies to arrive at prices that were affordable to small scale farmers.
He said government will also adopt an open market sales policy that would ensure that each type of fertilizer was sold at the same price across the entire country by the fertilizer companies.
In order to guarantee both productivity and output increases, he said government will open up the scheme in such a way that would ensure all categories of farmers would have equal access to fertilizers at a uniform price.
The Deputy Minister said the coupon system used to administer the subsidy in 2008/2009 would no more be entertained this year because of high overhead and administrative costs as well as the diversion of fertilizers from the intended beneficiaries.
Instead, he said, a way bill system with inbuilt monitoring controls to ensure proper implementation has been introduced, adding that a way bill receipt system will be employed in the distribution and sale of the fertilizers.
Nii Namoale said government has urged the fertilizer companies to open their own shops in the regions and sell directly to farmers alongside the distributors as part of measures to solve the problem of farmers inability to get adequate fertilizer during the peak planning season.
While government was considering the importation of fertilizer companies to increase the credit threshold of the distributors, all in an effort to solve the problem of shortage in the system.
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