The CEO of Witama Agribusiness has said that this season’s farm production does not look good because farmers do not have access to fertilizers as they did for the previous seasons.
Alberta Afriyie-Mensah in a recent interview said that farmers depend heavily on fertilizer and this season does not appear to be favourable for them because they do not have enough fertilizers due to their unavailability and also its increase in price.
“The question is are we even going to get enough fertilizer if we get it, how are the prices going to be, will the ordinary farmer be able to purchase it, even we as commercial farmers are anticipated to foresee a lot of struggle, what of the small-holder farmer who has already spent all the funds he has and is starting afresh from this season,” she said.
Time is crucial in farming, and there are intervals for each stage of the process; if there is a scarcity, planting will be delayed, causing schedules to be disrupted.
Fertilizer prices are predicted to shoot up to almost 300%, 50kg bag of fertilizer which was sold for ¢110 is likely to be sold this year for ¢400.
Farmers are unsure if importers will be bringing in fertilizer to sell under subsidy this season.
“Last year we heard of the struggles importers had to go through to be doing subsidies, we don’t know if they are still going to be doing subsidies this year. I personally used open market fertilizer for our farm and that is what we have to prepare for if a subsidy happens and we are able to get access to it then great, it may come but will we get it?” she added.