A report by the Parliamentary Select Committee on Agriculture, (Food and Cocoa Affairs) indicates that some fertilizer worth $12 million has gone missing.
The about 50,000 metric tonnes of subsidized fertilizer was meant for government’s Planting for Food and Jobs program.
They were believed to have been smuggled to Burkina Faso and Togo.
The report also observed that the allocation for 2019 to the Food and Agriculture Ministry for the purchase of fertilizer, was inadequate.
“Out of a total budget of GHȼ140, 930, 250.00 earmarked for the purchase of fertilizer for the year 2019, only GHȼ47, 726,216.80 has been provided for in the budget,†the report added.
Agric Minister, Dr. Afriyie Akoto Osei
The Committee was also informed that other funding sources would be sought by the Ministry to support this programme.
The Committee there entreated the Ministry “to ensure that the needed funding is sought to augment the shortfall and the needed efforts are made to curb the smuggling of fertilizer out of the country.â€
The issue about inadequate storage facilities was captured boldly in the report but officials of the Ministry informed the Committee about ongoing construction of 80 new warehouses to ensure adequate storage of crops in 2019.
30 of the number of storage facilities under construction will be funded by monies allocated to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the remaining 50 would be funded by the Ministry for Special Development Initiatives.
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