Danquah Addo-Yobo
YARA GHANA has announced it is committing US$20 million to supply YaraMila Actyva fertilisers to local farmers to enhance Ghana’s food security.
This package will benefit 100,000 productive smallholder farmers.
Yara, established in Ghana since 2007,took delivery of 18,000 metric tons of high-quality YaraMila Actyva fertiliser at the Tema Port recently.
Luis Alfredo Pérez, Yara’s Senior Vice President for Africa, commented, “Yara believes that market-based solutions are the most effective response to strengthen Ghana’s national food security, and will have a better chance of delivering sustained impact for farmers. The global geopolitical situation and macroeconomic indicators suggest that the current global food supply challenges may persist for some time.”
He continued, “We will adopt a medium to long term approach to strengthening the enabling environment in our key markets. We hope to continue this project for at least three consecutive farming seasons.”
Danquah Addo-Yobo, Yara’s Regional Director for West Africa, said “The Grow Ghana initiative brings a market-systems development approach to help productive smallholder farmers build resilience and sustainability. In the process, it will help them contribute to national food production. This initiative has the potential not only to help avert food insecurity across Ghana but also to catalyse a larger, continent-wide commitment to increase food system resilience, grow food security, and prevent hunger for 60 million people in Africa.”
According to the company, the war in Ukraine has compromised global access to affordable fertilisers, hindering farmers’ ability to feed their communities, threatening food security around the world. This impacts smallholder farmers directly, who needto apply crop nutrients in the form of mineral and organic fertilisers to their fields.It said if farmers cannot access reliable and affordable supplies of fertilisers, this will resultin reduced yields and higher risks to local food production and ultimately impact food supplies, and lead to larger numbers of people slipping into food insecurity.
Yara said it is working alongside smallholder farmers and trusted partners to secure access to high-quality fertilisersthat will help strengthen Ghana’s national food security and deliver lasting, positive impact for farmers.
The programme, “Grow Ghana,” will provide Ghanaian farmers with free bags of YaraMila Actyva as part of a package, effectively reducing the smallholder farmer’s average fertiliser cost by one-third. The goal is to help smallholder farmers have access to enough affordable fertiliser to sustain food production, and to feed over one million people across the country.”