Farmers in the Hohoe Municipality in the Volta Region have lauded the initiative of the government to subsidise the cost of fertilisers to make it affordable to farmers to ensure increased yields.
The farmers expressed their appreciation at Hohoe after collecting their fertilisers from the Green Shield Agro Chemical Company. The farmers, led by Mr George Agbemavor of Gbi-Kpoeta, said the government’s decision to absorb half the cost of the input had brought great relief, which would encourage them to increase their production this season.
Under the subsidy arrangement, the farmers were supplied with coupons by extension officers of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), to enable them to access fertilisers from some selected input dealers at half the cost.
Mr Agbemavor said they purchased the fertilisers with credit obtained from the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA).
The farmers, who are into rice and maize production, expressed the hope that their produce would be purchased by the Ghana School Feeding Programme to reduce the country’s over-dependence on imported rice significantly to save foreign exchange.
The Hohoe Municipal Director of MoFA, Mr Geoffrey Honu, commended the Green Shield Agro Chemical Company for keeping faith with the farmers in the area by supplying the fertilisers readily.
He said last year, 19,000 farmers benefited from the subsidy programme and this year 12,000 farmers had already submitted their coupons and expressed the hope that many more would do so.
Mr Honu expressed optimism that large scale farmers would also be roped in to enjoy the subsidy.
The Manager of the Green Shield Agro Chemical Company, Efo Kumah Ameyibor, who expressed the company’s commitment and support for the farmers, said they would always have their inputs ready at the right time to ensure that farmers maximised yields on the field.
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