Members of Parliament have clamoured for the Speaker and leadership to summon the Minister for Agriculture, Owusu Afriyie Akoto, to address the House on the shortage of subsidized fertilizer across the country.
The situation, according to the MPs, is dire because farmers are expected to be applying fertilizer to the crops since the country is midway through the rainy season already.
They warned there are timelines that fertilizer can be applied and once this time elapse it will be futile to use the fertilizer even if farmers are able to procure it.
The members lamented that the shortage at this time of the year is a national crisis, and warned the state is facing a potential disaster in the agriculture sector.
The MPs made the call last Friday during presentation of the Business Statement for next week, ending 23rd July 2021.
Member for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga, set the ball rolling when quizzed whether Deputy Leader of the House, Alexander Afenyo-Markin who read the statement on behalf of the Majority Leader will consider inviting the Minister to the House to explain the crises confronting farmers in relation to government-subsidized fertilizer.
He said, “Mr. Speaker, the rains are a problem but even more threatening to food security next year is the issue of farmers assessing subsidized fertilizer.”
“I am quite startled by the situation in my constituency and across the country. As we speak, I’m told by farmers in my constituency that today one will have to pay GH¢170.00 for a bag of fertilizer.”
He warned that time is elapsing for the application of the fertilizer and entreated the House to, as a matter of national interest summon the Minister for Agriculture to explain the crises.
According to Mr. Ayariga, Mr. Owusu Afriyie has been complaining in the media that the Finance Minister is not making funds available to pay for the backlog of fertilizer that has been supplied by input providers.
He, therefore, urged the House to summon the Agric Minister along with the Minister of Finance to ensure there is no blame game in the responses over the matter.
“We are confronted with a major national crisis and if we don’t take an urgent step as a Parliament to address this issue, we will face a challenge where tomorrow when we are given vehicles farmers will rise up.”
“Because they will say when it is their matter, we don’t treat it with urgency and seriousness that is warrants.”
“I don’t think they are against us having cars but they also want to see that when we have issues that concern them we deal with it effectively.”
“So I want to know whether the leader will consider inviting the Minister to deal with such important matter,” he added.
Member for Builsa South, Clement Apaak, who backed the call to summon the Agric Minister, noted that Ghana depends on the sector because most Ghanaians are peasant farmers.
He indicated that he has received calls from farmers in his constituency to procure sacks of fertilizer from Accra and send to them.
He appealed to the Majority leader to therefore invite the Minister to address the House on the matter, especially it being the farming season and the need to apply the fertilizer at certain times depending on the type of crop.
In a related development, MP for Adaklu, Kwame Governs Agbodza, has also appealed to the Majority leader to invite the Agriculture Minister to explain whether the report of the Cocoa Roads audit is read and when it will be made available to members.
According to him, he has filed a question on the issue but has not been programmed for the Minister to provide the answer and asked when the Minister will be made available on time for the response.
Source: MyPublisher24.com