By Mohammed Balu
Tumu, (UWR), July 17, GNA – Fertilizer input dealers in the Sissala East enclave have expressed concern about difficulties in getting articulator trucks for conveying their input from Tema to Tumu and other food-producing areas.
The dealers told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Tuesday that it was becoming impossible to convey inputs ordered from Tema to Tumu, Gwollu and other destinations nowadays because of the deplorable Sissala enclave roads.
Mr Sule Issifu, owner of Season Plus, an input dealer told the GNA that “I paid for two articulator trucks to bring my goods and it’s getting to two weeks and they have not come, the challenge they tell me is that most of the trucks detest coming down here due to the bad nature of the roads, it’s affecting my sales as my customers are running and others harassing me for their inputs.”
Mr Sule indicated that the fertilizer application was time bound and once farmers paid up and the goods were not in stock, it brought about conflict.
He said the sad aspect was that articulator owners would collect their monies but delay in bringing the goods.
Mr Abdulai Dakui of the Dakui Farms Enterprise, expressed how frustrating it had been saying, “I bought a truck load of fertilizer from Tema and it took four weeks before it got to Tumu.
We hear most of the articulators prefer to load to Burkina-Faso, Mali and Niger because they stand to make more money from the rise in CFA currency than the Ghana Cedi.
The painful aspect is that we pay GH¢30.00 per bag of 50kg fertilizer from Tema to Tumu and this runs to GH¢30,000 for 1,000 bags, even that, it takes weeks to get a truck loaded, something needs to be done.”
Mr Mutal Fuseini, who operates Paapa Enterprise at Pulima in the Sissala West District, said, “For the past eleven days the absence of trucks made me short of supplies. For those eleven days, I could have sold five articulator loads of fertilizer, but I am still hoping my transporter gets a truck if not farmers hoping to apply fertilizer on their crops may be affected.”
Alhaji Mohammed Daab, the CEO of Modab enterprise, complained that from the beginning of the year, a truckload of fertilizer from Tema to Tumu cost GH¢22.00 per bag but that it had been increased to GH¢30.00 and had further been increased to GH¢32.00 just two days ago.
“As I speak to you today 16th July, 2024, I just called Global transport, the transporter to try and load two trucks for the new price, but still, I am yet to get the numbers of the vehicles. The difference is about GH¢10 between January and July this year” and that it costs GH¢24.00 to transport fertilizer from Tema to Paga, but that those in that route had no problems of transportation due to the nature of the road.
“The irony is that it’s farther from Tema to Paga than it’s to Tumu. As I talk, I have paid for five trucks for the last three weeks yet it’s difficult to get a truck to load from Tema to Tumu. Now farmers need their fertilizer, and I cannot get it for them,” he said.
Mr Daab stressed the need for some of the input such as fertilizer to be brought closer to the northern part of Ghana in bulk for the input dealers to pick up for the farmers when they need them.
“Buying a good truck like an articulator costs about GH¢800,000.00 and that’s expensive for a lot of business people like me. Even when you talk to the banks, you don’t get the support that you need but we work for farmers, even overdraft, it takes a long time to raise if not years. I think drivers are afraid of the road due to damage to their trucks”, he said.
In Gwollu, Mr Abu Gommie, CEO of Abu Shaib Company Ltd, an input dealer, said, “I have paid for some quantity of truck of fertilizer in Tema, but there are no trucks to load and bring them to Gwollu and my farmers are getting angry with me.”
He said most drivers did not like carrying loads to Gwollu due to the bad nature of the road.
Mr Mahama Salifu, the Sissala East Municipal Director of Agriculture, sympathized with the dealers and expressed hope that the Sissala enclave roads would be done to address the transportation problem.
GNA