Twin natural products from volcanic ash, Sika zeolite organic fertilizer and sika folia organic pesticides have been launched by Imarich trading company to increase organic fertilizer access to the Ghanaian farmer at affordable cost.
The products have the ability to boost soil repair, reduce leaching, increase absorption of soil nutrients, increase crop yield without any adverse effects on the crops, the environment, humans and animals.
Deputy Minister for Food and Agriculture, Hon Yaw Frimpong Addo who read a Speech on behalf of the sector minister averred that the ministry is targeting an increased usage of fertilizer per hectare as one of its strategies to ensuring food sufficiency and security.
“As you aptly observed in your welcome address, in 2017 when we took office, the average fertilizer usage was 8kg per hectare, woefully inadequate. We have since increased this to 25kg per hectare, but which still falls short of the West African average of 50kg per hectare and worse than the global average of 130kg per hectare,” he said.
He indicated that the solution to closing this gap is to set up their own fertilizer processing and producing companies to ensure an increased availability and price reduction of fertilizer in Ghana; challenging Imarich to take up the challenge to ensure they are able to fill that gap.
“The need for local processing and fertilizer producing companies cannot be overemphasized considering the challenges we are currently facing us a country. Considering our current forex challenges, let me state the following facts for you to see how local fertilizer processing and production could assist in addressing the forex challenges we are having as a country. In 2019, Ghana imported the equivalent of $179million worth of fertilizer, $ 109million in 2020 and $79million in 2021…Government recognizing the low usage of fertilizer in Ghana and especially organic fertilizer and also taking note of the global supply chain challenges that have attended the availability of fertilizer, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture through the 2023 budget statement is going to increase the quota of organic fertilizer in the fertilizer subsidy program to the benefit of companies like yours to cover the shortfall in inorganic fertilizer supply and you should take full advantage.”
He encouraged Ghanaian farmers and consumers to patronize organic fertilizers saying that they are healthier, environmentally friendly and in the long run cheaper if they are patient to apply them consistently.
In his Welcome Address, Managing Director (MD) of Imarich Trading Company, Mr. Richard Nyamah said the mission of the company is to increase organic fertilizer access to the Ghanaian farmers at affordable prices.
He averred that, it has been estimated that as at January 2017, fertilizer usage was a meager 8kg per hectare which the Ministry of Food and Agriculture has since improved to 25kg per hectare.
This is however disappointedly lower than the 50kg per hectare for the ECOWAS subregion and even worse when compared to the 130kg per hectare average usage worldwide.
According to him, “It is important to note here that if 25kg per hectare is woefully inadequate, it is unforgivable to know that only 1% of the 25kg i.e. 2.5kg of it is organic fertilizer. It is our mission to bridge the gap in usage per hectare to the ECOWAS averages but more so increase the percentage of organic fertilizer usage in Ghana.”
Sika zeolite and folia, he explained, are derived from volcanic ash that has been tested in the lab and on the field and scientifically proven to have soil repairing properties that increase crop yield tremendously, improves the absorption of nutrients by plants, reduces leaching and gives you very healthy organic yields that can only make you live longer.
“Sika zeolite fertilizer and Sika folia pesticides are environmentally friendly, have no harmful or hazardous effects on both crops and humans, they have no smell and do not expire. Imarich trading limited has spent the last two years having the products tested on farms through demonstration farms, in the labs by scientist in Ghana and this has culminated in the acquisition of our licenses and certification by both the PPRSD of the ministry of food and Agriculture for the fertilizer and pesticide by EPA.”
Mr. Richard Nyamah also mentioned that the company had invited leading scientist who did the relevant research that led to the certification and licensing of the company, expressing the hope that the two wonderful products will revolutionize farming in Ghana.
According to Mr. Richard Nyamah the company is poised to increasing the percentage usage of organic fertilizer in Ghana from the current 1% of all fertilizer application in Ghana which stands at a paltry 25kg per hectare.
This means that Ghana currently only uses 2.5kg of organic fertilizer.
“It is our intention to increase this to at least 5% organic fertilizer of the total fertilizer application in the next 5years. The company apart from having the license and certification to operate in Ghana, has also acquired the European Union certificate that shows that farmers who use zeolite products will gain easy access to the European Union market,” he said.
Sika zeolite fertilizer
The fertilizer has the further ability to retain water and releases it in the portions required by the plants. This is so for tree crops and shallow rooted crops especially during dry season farming when the soil tends to be dry.
Sika folia pesticides
The folia on the other hand as an organic pesticide is natural without any chemicals that are harmful to humans. They kill piercing and sucking insects, prevents/kills mold attacking crops and restore leaves to their green natural color. It also kills mollusk such as snails that feed on leaves and crops but most importantly, pests are unable to develop resistance to sika folia pesticide.
The nonchemical nature of the sika organic pesticide allows farmers to apply it at anytime during farming until they have harvested since there will be no chemical residue deposited in the fruits or seeds or leaves that are eventually harvested.
Imarich trading company
Imarich trading company intends to set up its production plant in Ghana to locally produce and distribute to the Ghanaian market and West Africa.
This is a wholly Ghanaian company that seeks to encourage organic foods in Ghana to ensure food sustainability, food security, improved health and longer life of the average Ghanaian.