Two trucks loaded with bags of fertilisers meant for the “Planting for Food and Job (PFJ) programme have been impounded at the Paga Border.
That was when the drivers of the trucks tried to cross the border into Burkina-Faso on Sunday evening.
Each of the two trucks was carrying 2000 (25kg) Planting for Food and Jobs branded fertilizers, bringing the total to 4000 bags that were being smuggled to the detriment of the farmers in the Upper East region.
The Upper East Regional Minister and Chair of the Regional Security Council, Paulina Abayage, has commended the security agencies at the Paga Border for their vigilance, saying but for that, the Upper East Region would have lost the quantity of fertilizers impounded.
She also commended the Planting for Food and Jobs Secretariat and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture for the initiative to brand the subsidized fertilizers this year, which she said would make it easy to impound fertilizers being smuggled out of the country.
“Government is spending a lot of money to ensure that fertilizers for farmers registered under the Planting for Food and Jobs programme are subsidized, to be enable them to produce more food for their communities and the country as a whole,” she said.
“Unfortunately a few people have decided to smuggle these subsidized fertilizers to the detriment of the farmers in this country,” she lamented.
“This is bad and we are going to be though on any one caught smuggling the fertilizers. So long as I remain the head of REGSEC and with the help of all the security agencies, fertilizer smuggling will be fought severely,” she said.
FROM: Ebo Bruce-Quansah, Bolgatanga