A Value Chain Development Specialist and Director of Policy and Research Bureau, Chamber of Agribusiness Ghana, Kojo Ahiakpa, has called on the government to explore the by-products of natural gas in the manufacture of fertilizers.

Speaking to Citi Business News, he suggests that to avert the looming possibility of price hikes in fertilizers in the ensuing year as a result of the impasse between Russia and Ukraine, the government through the Ministry of Food and Agriculture must be responsive and tap into the natural elements that exist in the environment.

“We would like to re-emphasize the need for government to pay attention to the input sector in agribusiness, more importantly, with the fallout of the Russia-Ukraine war which has given an indicator of a shortfall in fertilizers,’ he reiterated.

“There is a need for us as a country to cushion the farmers in terms of the fertilizer production so that we do not run out of production when farmers are limited in their access,” he continued.

Kojo Ahiakpa predicted that the prices of fertilizers could go up if measures are not set in place to curb it.

“What this means is that we should expect a hike in the prices of fertilizers from 2023 and 2024.”

However, he maintained that the local industry could take advantage of the situation.

“Thankfully, we have a lot of local assemblies that are into organic fertilizer production notwithstanding. Ghana is into the drilling of oil and for example, the waste from gas could be leveraged to reduce the shortfall of fertilizer.”

He also suggested that ‘for the farm machinery government has received from Brazil to be put to good use, there is a need for local hands to be trained to man and service the equipment. In the long-term, government should be able to resource one of the IDIF projects to assembly some of these machinery locally.’