Govt helps stabilise prices of agro inputs

Page 17, November 21, 2007

Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah.
THE government has over the years done a lot to ensure that prices of farming inputs are stabilised and are very affordable, the Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture, Mr Clement Eledi told Parliament yesterday.
He explained that the ministry met periodically with the distributors of the inputs with the view to finding solutions to the phenomenon of high cost and to also educate them to overcome all the difficulties associated with such price hikes on agricultural inputs.
Mr Eledi, who said this in answer to a question from the Member of Parliament (MP) for Krachi East, Mr Wisdom Gidisu, explained that some of the measures put in place to assist farmers were that almost all imports of agricultural inputs were tax exempt.
The MP had enquired from the deputy minister what measures the ministry had taken to ensure that farmers accessed farming inputs at affordable prices.
He said at a meeting with the stakeholders a few weeks ago, a major problem which came up as being responsible for the hike in the prices of the inputs was the delay in clearing inputs at the ports.
“ The ministry has, therefore, held discussions with the Director General of the port in order to give preferential treatment to ships that docked to discharge agro inputs so as to avoid the payment of high port charges that could be passed on to farmers eventually,” Mr Eledi said.
He said the ministry had realised that most farming inputs were derived from crude oil, especially fertilisers, and for that matter the prices of crude oil, which was of course beyond its control, played a very important role in the determination of the prices of agro products.
“ That is why we periodically meet with the input distributors to map out strategies that could make agro inputs affordable,” the minister said.
The MP further asked the minister what steps the ministry had taken to rehabilitate the silos at Dormabin in the Krachi-East District.
Replying, Mr Eledi said the Dormabin site had the grain and storage facilities with eight metal storage bins and two holding metal bins were installed by the Ghana Food Distribution Corporation (GFDC).
He said it was later detected that some components of the facilities had been stolen and in an effort to secure the rest, some of the parts of the facility were removed for safety to Ho by the GFDC staff.
The minister said about a year ago, the Agricultural Engineering Department (AED) of MOFA was made to inspect the facility and detected that the metallic reception bin had rusted.
Mr Eledi said due to the problems and to ensure an accurate assessment of the facility, the AED recommended that “ we should contact the original installers to get an understanding of the operations of the facility and to ascertain if the units as they stand are complete,”.
Answering another question by the MP for Wa West, Mr Joseph Yieleh Chireh, Mr Eledi said the Upper West Regional Co-ordinating Council had started negotiations with MOFA to turn its buildings which were lying idle at Veiri into a police training school.
In another development the MP for Anlo, Mr Clement Humado, called for measures to reduce poverty among food crop farmers in the rural areas through a policy of price equalisation on fertiliser inputs.
In a statement on the floor of the House the MP said price inequalities on agro inputs did not create equal opportunities for food crop farmers in the rural savannah areas of the country.
Mr Humado suggested that in order to turn the situation around, the country needed to adopt a regulatory framework that provided an equal pricing policy for aggro inputs.
“Mr Speaker, price equality for agro-products throughout the country would go a long way to reduce the inequalities that we are presently experiencing in the country and also contribute to improving social cohesion and equal development”, he stated.