Ghana govt urged to establish fertilizer plant to boost agric productivity

The Co-Chair of the Ghana Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (GEITI) has urged the Ghanaian government to establish a fertilizer manufacturing plant to boost agricultural productivity.

Dr. Steve Manteaw told Xinhua recently that it was important to put in place measures to ensure that Ghana use its gas to interface with agricultural productivity.

Ghana discovered oil in commercial quantities in July 2007 but commenced actual production in December 2010.

With oil and gas production, little attention seems to be placed on agriculture which employs between 55-60 percent of the country's population.

Dr. Manteaw, who is also a member of the civil society platform on oil and gas, said such a phenomenon was dangerous for the country's agricultural sector.

He therefore urged the government to use a percentage of its oil and gas revenue to improve the agricultural sector.

"There is no single fertilizer plant in West Africa. I am calling on for the establishment of one here so that we will stop spending huge sums of dollars importing them.

"We can use condensates from the gas field and if they are not enough, we can import some from Nigeria and use it to feed the plant to produce fertilizers for our farmers and some for export."

The GHEITI Co-Chair further emphasized such a decision by the government would create job avenues for most people as well as save the country from spending its scarce resources on fertilizer imports. Enditem