The infamous activity has created a brisk business for some individuals who make in excess of GHc15,000 each a day.

Some of them earn their living carting the smuggled bags of fertiliser from trucks in smaller bits onto tricycles, which they transport into the neighbouring countries through the unapproved routes.

Some of them cross with a minimum of 10 such tricycles per day.

The subsidy on fertiliser was introduced as part of efforts to enhance agricultural productivity and increase the income of farmers, particularly smallholder ones.

Graphic Business investigations into activities along the northern border of the country revealed that under the clear view of officials of the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), the Ghana Police Service and the Ghana Immigration Service at the various borders, smugglers, through an open syndicate ringed around local smugglers and Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) representatives stationed at the borders to check the smuggling of these very subsidised chemicals, transport several goods illegally across the border.

“What you need to know is agric officers are conniving with fertiliser agents and distributors under the government’s fertiliser subsidy programme to smuggle large quantities of the chemicals outside the country,” a confidential source disclosed to the paper in Bawku.

Through unapproved routes, the smugglers, who have gained roots in Kulungugu and Aflao, where they exert ample influence on security officials, connive to smuggle thousands of bags of subsidised fertiliser to Togo and Burkina Faso every week.

“Just look behind the border where the assembly has spent money to construct the new unapproved road direct from the border to Burkina Faso and see how smugglers trek to Togo and Burkina Faso with smuggled goods,” a source disclosed, while pointing to loaded trucks parked along the main road leading to the border checkpoint at Kulungugu.

How the ring operates

At Kulungugu, GRAPHIC BUSINESS observed that between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m., about 50 motor tricycles with haulers affixed to behind them carted away subsidised fertiliser loaded in trucks parked just along the road that led to the main border checkpoint.

The over 50 motorcycles deployed daily by the smuggling syndicate also transport agro-chemicals and other goods such as timber and petroleum products across the border through Badoo into Mogande on the Burkina Faso side.

On their return, these motorcycles bring back goods which are cheaper in these neighbouring countries into Ghana.

In Aflao, the activities of these smugglers were carried out in the open, without any form of restrictions. The paper observed that police and customs officials were all at post while the smugglers operated without any interference from the officers.

The smugglers employed the services of head porters who besieged the trucks as they approached the border. The trucks, loaded with subsidised fertiliser and other goods that only crossed the border illegally, parked along the road leading to the main border post in Aflao and then offloaded the goods that were subsequently carried across the border by the head porters who charged a few cedis per crossing.

There were also trucks which crossed the border fully loaded with the subsidised fertiliser without any interference.

Money lost

The government is expected to spend a GHc207 million this year on the National Fertiliser Subsidy Programme.

This amount represents almost a 50 per cent price cut for beneficiary farmers in both organic and inorganic fertiliser.

Under the Planting for Food and Jobs policy, the government, in Goaso in the Brong Ahafo Region on April 19, this year, launched a subsidised fertiliser distribution programme which involved the distribution of 150,000 tonnes of fertiliser to about 200,000 selected farmers across the country.

The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, said at the launch that the huge subsidy demonstrated the government’s commitment to revamp agriculture and improve the lives of farmers.

In all, 180,000 tonnes of fertilisers, including NPK, Urea and sizeable quantities of inorganic fertiliser, will be distributed to the selected farmers.
This will represent about 3.6 million bags of the product, which is expected to cost the government GHc207 million.

Breakdown of subsidy

This year’s subsidy represents a significant increase of about 50 per cent, compared to the prices offered to farmers last year.

For example, in 2016, farmers paid GHc85 and GHc80 per 50kg bag of of compound fertiliser (NPK) and 

Urea, respectively.
These amounts have, however, been slashed significantly to GHc57.50 and GHc47.50, respectively, while the price of organic fertiliser (ACARP) remains unchanged at GHc15.

National Fertiliser Subsidy Programme

Since 2008, one of the key agricultural intervention programmes introduced by the government through the MoFA has been the National Fertiliser Subsidy Programme.
It is aimed at enhancing food production and security in the country.

Under the current programme, farmers are required to pay 25 per cent of the cost of fertiliser upfront and another 25 per cent after harvesting, while the government pays off the other half (50 per cent) as an incentive to boost agriculture in the country.

In all, 13 companies were awarded contracts for the supply of the product under the Public Procurement Act which requires ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to engage in open tendering processes.

The companies include Yara Ghana Limited, Chemico Limited, Afcot Ghana Limited, AMG, Omni Energy Ghana Ltd, Louis Dreyfus Commodities, Iddisal Company Ltd, ETC Ghana Ltd and Centroid Supplies and Logistics Ltd.

The rest are RMG Ghana Ltd, Ganorma Agro-Chemicals, Yayra Glover Organic Inputs Ltd and the Accra Compost and Recycling Plant (ACARP).

Peasant farmers optimistic

The Programmes Coordinator of the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG), Bismark Owusu Nortey, in an interview, told GB that the National Fertiliser Subsidy Programme would have been beneficial to smallholder farmers in different ways, especially in the three northern regions, if the programme was well structured and farmers were receiving the fertiliser allocated to them.

“If farmers get to know more about how to access the subsided fertiliser, they are always happy and well prepared to go through the procedure. The second thing is that the volume has increased this time, and as they have increased, it is very likely that people will be farming more.

“So the benefit for smallholder farmers is that they can easily access the subsided fertiliser at a cheaper rate, especially now that the price has been reduced by 50 per cent,” he said. — GB