Francis Ennor, the Upper East Regional Director of Agriculture is worried about the imminent drop in the production of food in the region. Mr Ennor said due to the increasingly erratic rainfall coupled with the continued increase in the prices of fertilizers, farmers would be unable to meet previous production levels.
Speaking on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show, Friday, May 27, 2022, Mr. Ennor said unless there is some form of magic that happens to the availability and prices of fertilizers, farmers would be forced to reduce the acreage cultivated.
Farmers may also be forced to substitute the production of maize and other cereals for the production of legumes. This is because of the cheaper costs of production.
“Food insecurity is a major concern. There will be a reduction in production. Unless magic happens and there are fertilizers available. This is impossible. Looking at the peasant farmers, the subsistence farmers; it will be impossible to increase production or even maintain what we did last year.”
“Even if they will maintain, there will be a difference in the crops produced. If somebody did maize 10 acres last year, he may not be able to do it this year because the fertilizers are not there. So instead of putting much land into maize, he or she will turn to legumes; soybeans, cowpeas or groundnuts,” he said.
Mr Ennor continued to say that “yes, next year, food availability would be a problem”.
To this end, the Agric Director is calling on farmers to get as much help to ensure good agronomic practices. This he said would at least, ensure that farmers get good investments off their returns.
Earlier, Mr Ennor said that farmers in the Upper East Region would have to be prepared to part with bigger sums of money than they did last year to get the same quantities of fertilizers they need for their farming activities.
This is because of the continuous rise in the price of fertilizers across the globe.
Government is, therefore, unable to cope with the continuous rise in the prices of fertilizers. This is why farmers would have to pay 85 percent of the cost of the fertilizers that would be made available under the Planting for Food and Jobs programme.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
