The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has called on the government to allocate significant funding in the upcoming budget to establish fertiliser manufacturing plants, ensuring a consistent and affordable supply for farmers.
The IFS argues that the agriculture sector is currently underperforming, with its contribution to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) declining from 26.9% in 2010 to 22.7% in 2023.
During a recent press briefing ahead of the budget presentation on March 11, 2025, Dr. Said Boakye, Senior Research Fellow at the IFS, underscored that the establishment of more fertilizer manufacturing plants could greatly improve agricultural productivity.
We need to establish several fertiliser manufacturing plants to ensure that adequate and affordable fertiliser is available to farmers, which will help boost agricultural productivity,” Dr. Boakye stated.
Dr. Boakye also lamented the absence of a single chemical fertiliser plant in Ghana, comparing the country’s situation to Vietnam, which has over 7,000 plants.
The sad reality is that Ghana lacks a single chemical fertiliser plant. In our rice studies, we have been comparing with Vietnam, where they have more than 7,000 plants. Vietnam’s success in achieving high agricultural productivity is largely due to fertilisers being readily available to farmers at no cost, along with incentivized prices,” he noted.
He further criticized Ghana’s fertiliser distribution system, which relies heavily on imports, stating that it is often plagued by political interference despite government efforts to distribute fertiliser to farmers.
According to data from africafertilizer.org, there is no primary production of inorganic fertilisers in Ghana. Fertilisers are imported in compounds and bulk. The bulk fertilisers are blended into various formulations and distributed through a network or system of distributors and retail agro-dealers.
The data also revealed that fertiliser imports to Ghana increased by 46% from 2019 to 2020. Fertiliser imports in 2020 totalled 618,638 metric tonnes and 1,399,767 litres.
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