- PFAG seeks cheaper fertiliser after MoFA distributes 40,000 bags to farmers
The Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana has urged the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to engage fertiliser manufacturers and suppliers to reduce market prices, warning that the government’s free fertiliser distribution programme will not be enough to meet the needs of millions of farmers across the country.
The call follows the recent distribution of 40,000 bags of inorganic fertiliser and five agricultural drones to PFAG under the Feed Ghana Programme, an intervention intended to support smallholder farmers and improve agricultural productivity.
PFAG welcomed the gesture but said the scale of demand in the sector means many farmers are unlikely to benefit from the free supplies.
Executive Director of PFAG, Bismark Nortey, in an interview on Accra – based radio station Citi FM, said the government’s fertiliser policy for the year is built around free distribution, but access remains a major concern.
“We know that the policy for the government this year, when it comes to fertilisers is free distribution. However, there’s a challenge because not all farmers will be able to access it,” he said.
Mr Nortey said PFAG’s membership alone ranges between 500,000 and one million farmers, making the current allocation inadequate for the association’s members, let alone the wider farming population.
“If you’re having 40,000 bags, you can’t even supply all,” he noted.
He said although district agricultural offices and constituencies are also receiving fertiliser allocations, the total volumes available remain insufficient when measured against Ghana’s estimated farming population of about three million people.
“We are looking at around three million people, and you can imagine the burden on government coffers if you have to supply over three million bags of fertiliser,” he said.
PFAG is therefore proposing a complementary policy that would make fertiliser more affordable for farmers who are unable to access the free distribution programme.
Mr Nortey said MoFA should engage fertiliser companies and suppliers to explore mechanisms for reducing prices on the open market, so farmers left out of the free distribution programme can still purchase inputs at more affordable levels.
“What I would encourage the ministry to do, in addition to this gesture, is to find a mechanism to ensure that they engage these fertiliser companies to reduce the prices so that farmers who are not able to access any of the free fertilisers can at least buy them on the market at reduced prices,” he stated.
The appeal comes at a time when farmers are facing high input costs, limited access to capital and market challenges, including produce gluts that reduce farmgate prices and weaken incomes.
Mr Nortey said lower fertiliser prices would provide relief to farmers who are already struggling to finance production and manage uncertain market conditions.
“We all know the challenges that our farmers are facing regarding the markets, glut and the fact that they are unable to raise enough capital,” he added.
The concern raised by PFAG points to a broader challenge in Ghana’s agricultural support system: how to balance targeted free input distribution with wider market affordability for farmers who do not benefit directly from government allocations.
Fertiliser remains one of the most important inputs for crop productivity, particularly for smallholder farmers whose yields are often constrained by limited access to improved seeds, mechanisation, irrigation and affordable credit.
If many farmers are unable to access either free fertiliser or reasonably priced commercial supplies, the risk is that productivity gains expected under the Feed Ghana Programme may be uneven, especially in areas where production depends heavily on fertiliser application.
The PFAG proposal also raises a fiscal question for government. Providing free fertiliser to every farmer would impose a significant burden on public finances, but leaving input prices entirely to the market could exclude poorer farmers and weaken national food production.
For PFAG, the practical middle ground is for MoFA to use its convening power to negotiate lower fertiliser prices while maintaining targeted free distribution for selected farmer groups.
The outcome of such an approach could determine how widely farmers benefit from the current intervention and whether the programme can contribute meaningfully to food production, rural incomes and price stability in the months ahead.
