CHALLENGES IN ASSESSING FERTILIZER CONSUMPTION AND FERTILIZER USE BY CROP IN GHANA NOVEMBER, 2014 Preface and Acknowledgement This study was Commissioned and Funded by the North and West Africa Division of the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC NWAFD). The consultant is grateful for the opportunity that was offered him, which has enhanced his knowledge and experience on issues related to the fertilizer industry in Ghana and also afforded him the opportunity to contribute to the discussions on Fertilizer Use by Crop (FUBC) in the country. The consultant owes a lot of gratitude to colleagues in the public and civil service of Ghana, who have contributed in various ways to the preparation of this report. Special thanks go to the following colleagues: 1. Daniel Wawo of the Statistics, Research and Information Directorate of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture; 2. Michael Owusu of the Directorate of Crop Services of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture; 3. Francis Dzah of the Ghana Statistical Service; 4. Samuel Mortey of the Ghana Statistical Service; 5. Sandra Asimenu of the Ghana Statistical Service; and 6. Felix Brakatu of the Ghana Input Dealers Association. The consultant also benefitted from quite a number of previous publications, which he prefers to cite as references to acknowledge their contributions to this work. The consultant would also like to acknowledge with many thanks for the support received from the supervisor of the study, Mr. Patrice Annequin, the AfricaFertilizer.org Coordinator at the IFDC office in Accra, Ghana and his staff, Japhet Lartey and Antonina Bawuah. We are greatly indebted to them for their guidance. ii Table of Contents Preface and Acknowledgement .................................................................................................... ii List of Tables ................................................................................................................................. v List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ v Abbreviations and Acronyms ..................................................................................................... vi Abstract ........................................................................................................................................ vii Chapter One: Background to the Study .................................................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Objectives ......................................................................................................................... 1 1.3 Rationale ........................................................................................................................... 2 1.4 Methodology .................................................................................................................... 2 1.5 Expected outputs .............................................................................................................. 3 Chapter Two: Economy, Climate and Relief ............................................................................ 4 2.1 Agriculture ....................................................................................................................... 4 2.2 Agro-ecological zones ...................................................................................................... 4 2.3 Climate ............................................................................................................................. 6 2.4 Soils and topography ........................................................................................................ 7 Chapter Three: Agricultural Crop Production ........................................................................ 8 3.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 8 3.2 Production of Food Crops ................................................................................................ 8 3.2.1 Production of Cereals ................................................................................................ 9 3.2.2 Production of industrial crops ................................................................................. 10 3.2.3 Production of Fruits ................................................................................................ 11 3.2.4 Production of Legumes ........................................................................................... 11 3.2.5 Production of Vegetables ........................................................................................ 12 3.2.6 Production of roots, tubers and plantain ................................................................. 13 3.2.7 Production of other crops produced by district ....................................................... 13 Chapter Four: Fertilizer Market in Ghana ............................................................................. 16 4.0 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 16 4.1 Fertilizer Importation ..................................................................................................... 16 4.2 Fertilizer Exportation ..................................................................................................... 18 4.3 Fertilizer Consumption (2011 – 2013) ........................................................................... 21 Chapter Five: SWOT Analysis of Data Sources, Methodologies, Tools and Data Availability.......................................................................................................... 23 5.1 Data sources, methodologies, tools and data availability to calculate real consumption ... of fertilizers and fertilizer use by crops in Ghana .......................................................... 23 5.2 SWOT Analysis .............................................................................................................. 23 5.2.1 Customs Division of Ghana Revenue Authority .................................................... 23 iii 5.2.2 Ghana Statistical Service ............................................................................................. 24 5.2.3 Ministry of Food and Agriculture ........................................................................... 25 5.3 Conclusions on SWOT analysis ..................................................................................... 25 Chapter Six: The Fertilizer Subsidy Programme in Ghana .................................................. 26 6.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 26 6.2 Fertilizer use comparison of Ghana and other parts of the world .................................. 26 6.3 Policy direction .............................................................................................................. 26 6.4 Quantity distributed and cost to government ................................................................. 26 6.4 Implementation modalities ............................................................................................. 27 6.5 Selection of companies and allocation of quotas ........................................................... 27 6.6 Subsidy targeting and policy governing the programme ............................................... 28 6.7 Challenges ...................................................................................................................... 28 6.8 Impact on food production ............................................................................................. 28 Chapter Seven: Dealing with Missing Gaps in Data............................................................... 30 7.1 Verification method ........................................................................................................ 30 7.2 Surrogate technique ........................................................................................................ 30 7.3 Trend analysis – Interpolation and extrapolating ........................................................... 32 Chapter Eight: Cost-effective ways for collecting real consumption and Fertilizer Use by Crop data in the context of Ghana .................................................................. 34 8.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 34 8.2 Cost effective way of collecting FUBC data .................................................................. 34 8.3 Report of survey on fertilizer use by crop in Ghana (2011-2013) ................................. 35 8.3.1 Background ............................................................................................................. 35 8.3.2 Objective of study ................................................................................................... 35 8.3.3 Methodology ........................................................................................................... 35 8.3.4 Expected output ...................................................................................................... 36 8.3.5 Trends of fertilizer consumption ............................................................................