Fertiliser distributors attend workshop

AS part of measures aimed at achieving some level of food security and improving access to the appropriate fertiliser application, Yara Ghana has organised a workshop for 1,500 fertiliser distributors in the country.
The workshop, which was held in Asankrangwa in the Amenfi West District of the Western Region, attracted fertiliser distributors and retailers from all the 10 regions.
The Technical and Sales Support Manager of YARA, Mr Henry Otoo-Mensah, said food sufficiency and security were no longer achieved through the expansion of the land area under cultivation but the proper and efficient use of mineral fertilisers.
He said many countries were able to feed their growing populations not by the expansion of the area under cultivation but through the appropriate application of mineral fertilisers.
According to him, developed countries such as the United States of America (USA) applied a maximum of 190kg of fertiliser per hectare, whereas in Africa the application rate was about 8kg per hectare.
"Matters are made worse by the method of application, to the extent that a large portion of the fertilisers applied cannot be accessed by the plants," he said.
Mr Otoo-Mensah noted that Yara had designed fertiliser formulas made for the production of specific crops.
He noted that the country had also been divided into four zones — northern, middle, south-western and the south-eastern — with each zone headed by a senior agronomist who had deep knowledge of the crops grown in the area.
He explained that the rate of fertiliser consumption as it stood now could not guarantee us food security, adding that at 5kg per hectare, the country would continue to experience food deficit in the production of major food items such as maize, rice, sorghum and vegetables.
He observed that until the country was able to increase the present fertiliser consumption rate from about 1.5 million bags to an average of about three million bags, crops would not be able to yield as expected.
He encouraged farmers to use the appropriate fertiliser for the different crops they cultivated.
The Sales Agronomist in charge of South-western Ghana, Mr Joseph Evans Ocran, said the workshop would be replicated throughout the 10 regions.