Expert Advocates Local Production Of Fertilizers

An Agricultural En
gineer, Mr. Mensah Muzan, has advocated  the production of fertilizer locally in order to make the commodity available to local farmers.
Muzan, who stated this in a telephone interview with The Tide on Tuesday explained that local  production and blending of fertilizers would help cut import costs  and reduce subsidies  needed  to make  the commodity affordable to poor farmers.
He explained that since farming accounts for more than a quarter of the nation’s annual economic  output, the high cost of which, is not helping matters.
According to him, the development  would lead to farmers  relying  on subsidies  or avoid  using fertilizer which  would negatively affect agric output.
Muzan disclosed  that, ammonia for fertilizers could be produced  from hydrocarbon feed stocks, such as natural gas and oil, adding that high input costs have turned some farmers away from  export crops such as cashew.
He expressed the hope that governments at the  various  levels  were encouraging farmers to create  unions  and cooperatives to enable them buy fertilizer  in bulk; thereby reducing  individual costs