Farmers queue for non-existent subsidized fertilizer in Bolgatanga

Farmers in the Upper East and parts of the North East Regions are, queuing at some registered agrochemical input dealers’ shops in Bolgatanga in search of non- existent subsidized NPK  and urea fertilizer to buy .

Though some of them are beginning to throw their hands in despair as at Thursday afternoon, the dealers continued to assure them to continue to wait for consignments of the NPK and Urea fertilizers they were expecting to cost GH¢35.00 and GH¢37.50 per bag respectively.

However there was a brisk open market sale of non-subsidized NPK and Urea fertilizer, at a cost of GH¢100.00 and GH¢120.00 respectively, alongside the heavy queues in the shops of the input dealers.

The NPK according to the dealers were in short supply for over a week in the Upper East Region and many farmers continued to troop the supply centres to ascertain the availability of the product.

Some workers at the Pentasgo Enterprise, dealers of agrochemical products in Bolgatanga, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, indicated that they were expecting the arrival of some subsidized fertilizer soon in the Municipality.

Mr Francis Ennor, the Regional Director of MoFA, commenting on the shortage of subsidized fertilizer in the area, said government had released a lot of fertilizer and seeds to the region much earlier and assured the farmers of more supplies yet to arrive.

On fertilizer smuggling reported in the region, he noted that a lot of interventions were put in place to ensure that such acts were reduced.
He said, the region had exceeded its subsidy quota of over 1,000,300 bags of fertilizer that was received and distributed through the agents already, but more was expected.

He said four trucks of fertilizer arrived in the Bawku Municipality last Tuesday and that would help meet the demand of farmers in that area.

He called for vigilance of all to ensure that the fertilizer went to serve the needs of the farmers in the Upper East Region.

Source: GNA