About 222 Smallholder Farmers, mainly Women from Kassena-Nankana Municipal and Builsa North Districts of the Upper East Region have received free fertilizers from Yara Ghana LTD to improve the growth and productivity of their crops.
Having worked with most Women Groups in areas such as rural community needs and the acquisition of capital for expansion of their Agribusiness in the region, B. C Bencyn Susu Enterprise coordinated and aided in reaching out to the vulnerable but hardworking farmers.
Each of the 222 Women Farmers from some selected Women Groups who according to the Yara Ghana are doing well in crop production received 3 bags of YaraMila Actyva fertilizers for free.
As part of its intervention to ensure sustainability of food security in Ghana, Yara Ghana dedicated about 18,000 Metric Tonnes of fertilizer to Smallholder Farmers, particularly women and Vulnerable Groups across the country.
On the other leg of the initiative called ‘Grow Ghana’, the company introduced ‘buy 2, get 1 free’ program, where farmers acquire free bag of Yara Fertilizer for every 2 bags bought from the market.
This according to the company will aid every household to cultivate at least an acre of cereal of their choice without fertilizer acquisition challenges.
Speaking to Dreamz News, the Yara Ghana Representative in parts of Upper East Region and Burkina-Faso, Leticia Abaluk noted that, the COVID19 pandemic and Russia-Ukraine war which created a challenge in farmers quest to access reliable and affordable fertilizers necessitated Yara Ghana LTD’s intervention to increase yields and water down the risk of low local food production.
She said, ”We just came out of covid19 and it was very difficult to import and produce fertilizers and just when covid19 was about to go off, Russia-Ukraine war started and if you are in the industry, you know that most of the raw materials come from Ukraine and Russia for the production of fertilizers. So when they also started the war, it generally affected the supply and prices of fertilizers. So Yara Global CEO decided that he was going to support certain countries [including Ghana] with fertilizers for every household to cultivate at least one acre of cereal of their choice to support food security”.
Madam Abaluk added that, ”We brought about 666 bags of YaraMiler Actyva fertilizer to support 222 Women farmers. Each farmer is taking home 3 bags of fertilizer for free at no charge delivered in Vonania. We just looked at the women groups that are doing well [in farming activities]. We saw that if we support them, they can do well and when the woman is always supported, the household is ok”.
Some of the beneficiary farmers who spoke to Dreamz News after receiving their fertilizers stated that, the free fertilizer initiative by Yara Ghana LTD will go a long way to boost their food production and ease the burden associated with acquisition of reliable and affordable fertilizers
