Register credible Agro-Input Dealers to minimise smuggling of fertilizers -Upper East CSOs appeal to stakeholders
The Upper East Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Agriculture Platform has called on the Department of Food and Agriculture to collaborate with the Ghana Agro-Input Dealers Association (GAIDA) in the registration of credible input dealers to help minimise smuggling of fertilizers under the Planting for Food and Jobs (PfJs).
The organization also called on government to provide incentives and motivate informants as well as security personnel at check-points to facilitate the arrest and subsequent prosecution of persons engaged in smuggling of farm inputs.
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This was contained in a six-point resolution adopted at the end of a day's Regional Stakeholder engagement forum at Bolgatanga on the role of Agro-Input Dealers in the delivery of the PFJs in the Upper East Region.
The Platform is an umbrella of CSOs and Private sector actors in the agriculture sector. The resolution was reached by stakeholders at the forum that included traditional authorities, agro-input dealers, Women in Agriculture Platform (WAPs) and the Media.
“There is the need to extend the PFJ programme which is presently focused on raining season production to include dry season production in a bid to promote dry season agriculture as a contributor to food and nutrition security and poverty alleviation in the region and Ghana as a whole,” the resolution further stressed.
It suggested to all key stakeholders to totally eliminate all forms of ‘political interference’ in the registration and/or selection of input dealers.
“It is our firm conviction that the key criteria for the selection should be based on previous track record, financial capacity of input dealers and credibility,” the resolution stated.
Touching on the repayment of loans, the resolution urged the Department of Agriculture to reconsider the credit support for input supply on the PFJ particularly for women farmers through dedicated input dealers in the region as women have continued to show great commitment to repayment of loans advanced through women’s groups.
“We demand of government to continue distributing confiscated smuggled fertilizer to the poor and vulnerable groups including women farmers and persons with disability after naming and shaming those caught smuggling,” it appealed.
Acknowledgement
The Chairman of the Upper East CSOs in Agriculture Platform, Mr Simon Amoah acknowledged the contribution of the PfJs to achieving food and nutrition Security in the region.
He said there was the need to address some of the challenges facing its implementation, hence the importance of the forum.
Achievements
Mr Amoah further revealed that the Platform was established in April 2017, “with the broad goal of contributing towards agricultural development in the Region in particular and the country as a whole”.
As an organization, the Chairman noted that it has been mobilizing farmers to make inputs into the national decision making process including the need to recruit more Agricultural extension officers with the provision of more logistics.
He explained that some of the inputs were yielding the desired results and mentioned the recent recruitment of more than 2,000 agricultural extension service agents for the country by government as one of its contributions that has produced results.
According to him, the organization has also made suggestions for the country not to over concentrate on the crops sector to the neglect of the livestock sector which eventually paved way for the introduction of the Rearing for Food and Jobs programme.