The Managing Director of RMG Ghana Limited, an agricultural company, William Kotey, has advised the government to improve infrastructure instead of reducing the subsidy on fertiliser.
He said although fertiliser subsidy boosted productivity, the lack of motorable roads, irrigation system and other infrastructure had defeated the purpose of giving the subsidy.
Mr Kotey was speaking to the journalist after an evening encounter, organised by the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIMG) on the theme “Getting it right with Agribusiness; The Supply Chain Management Factor”, last Thursday.
He said the subsidy also made it easier for some people to smuggle fertilisers to neighbouring countries.
Lamenting the poor road infrastructure in farming communities, Mr Kotey said a journey that should be ten minutes, unfortunately took an hour, saying “That its a waste of time for the farmer not to have easy access to the people.”
He stressed that “roads and market has to improve, transportation has to improve so that the farmer can have easy and timely access to inputs” emphasising that agriculture was time bound.
Mr Kotey indicated that “they are many things that has to be done, but the key is to have infrastructure you need to reduce the cost of production of the farmer”.
He noted that additional water irrigation system would enable farmers do all year round farming and not to overly depend on the rains.
Mr Kotey also called for the building of human capacities in agriculture in addition to financial support from financial institutions, to enable more people join the agribusiness.
