Government sharing 'expired' fertilizers to farmers - Larry Dogbe alleges

The editor-in-chief of the Herald Newspaper, Mr Larry Dogbe, is alleging that, government is currently sharing subsidised fertilizers for free because it expires in few days.

Speaking to Kwame Tutu on Rainbow Radio 87.5FM, he said, the subsidised fertilizer which was made available for farmers to buy at the cost of Ghc 80 have now been shared among cocoa farmers for free in Assin Fosu.

He said, the ferlizer has 20/11/2016 and 20/11/2018 as manufacturing and expiry dates.

Subsidy on fertilizer was introduced in 2017 when the NPP government came to office, a policy which left several thousands of government-subsidized fertilizer in stock.

He indicated that, the timing of the distribution is wrong because cocoa fertilizer application is usually done between the months of March and April to get the needed yield.

In detailing his allegation he explained that, farmers and other stakeholders are wondering if the fertilizer which has less than one month to expire can have any repercussions on their cocoa farms but officials of COCOBOD say it poses no challenge.

Meanwhile, government has approved the purchase of new fertilizers despite causing financial loss to the state, he noted. The fertilizers he posited will have an effect on the cocoa beans and the sale may drop significantly.