Fertilizer Shortage: COCOBOD advises farmers to use poultry manure for farming
Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Joseph Boahen Aidoo, has advised cocoa farmers in country to turn to the use of poultry manure as fertilizer for farming.
This comes on the back the shortage of inorganic fertilizers across the world due to the Russia-Ukraine war.
In an interview, Mr Aidoo said, “Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, these three countries produce the base elements for fertilizer, that is the Sulphate of Ammonia, that is very important for the production of fertilizer.
“You can bring in all the other compounds but these are the basis, they constitute the fundamental elements for the production of fertilizer. With the war in these three countries, Belarus wasn’t involved but Russia has just drifted them in, it means we cannot get the base elements to produce the fertilizers.
“Not just for Ghana but globally, it is going to be difficult and once that base element cannot be obtained it means there is going to be shortage.”
He added that, “There is no way those materials will come. So we must all brace ourselves that come next year, it won’t be there, or even if it is going to be there maybe from other countries but it will be very limited.
“We as country will then have to look for alternatives. We have been telling the farmers that when you talk about fertilizer it is not just the inorganic fertilizer, even the organic fertilizer, poultry manure is the best, this is the time. Now we cannot get the fertilizer, let alone to make it free.”
Meanwhile, reports have indicated that Ghana is likely to suffer from the shortage of fertilizer due to the Russia-Ukraine war.
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This is expected to impact negatively on crop production and soil improvement in Ghana particular under the government flagship programme planting for food and jobs (PFJ) which relies heavily on inorganic fertilizers.
Russia is one of the largest producers of fertilizers in the world and therefore the sanctions on them by the United States, NATO and European Union, will worsen supply of fertilizers making its scarce in the Sub Saharan Africa Region.
Fertilizer production supply, is said to worsen this year than the covid-19 era and will be further aggravated by economic sanctions imposed by the European Union, NATO, the United States among others on Russia.
This is because the Continent is a net importer of the commodity.
The shortage in supply will be compounded with the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on fertilizer supply which saw the lowest usage in 2020 because of the supply constraints and production bottlenecks from producing companies.
There are therefore calls for urgency in finding a remedy to the situation to avoid a significant output set back this year and in 2023.
Additionally, the report noted that investing in local production units will protect farmers in the event that imports of fertilizers fail to materialize.
Again, there are calls for government to implement deliberate policies that will encourage farmers to grow stable crops such as millet, maize, and cassava that require less amount of inorganic fertilizers to grow.
On policy recommendation for the Northern sector, the report urged government to consider implementing the fertilizer subsidy policy across board.
