The Managing Director of Chemico Limited, K. K. Donkoh, has debunked the notion that the colour of a fertiliser determines its quality.
He said there was no truth in the claim by some companies and distributors that the nutritional value of a fertiliser was ascertained by its colour.
Instead, he explained, “the efficacy is determined by the formula you use, in other words, the components of the fertiliser in relation to the specific plant requirement.
“The colour is only a derivative of the composition, and this is why fertilisers from different companies tend to differ in colour,” he said.
Mr Donkoh, gave the explanation during a tour of his company by the Minister of Agriculture, Fifi Kwetey.
A reporter had asked about the correlation between a fertiliser’s colour and its nutritional value which some players claimed determined its potency.
He said the composition made Chemico fertiliser the most ideal for Ghanaian farmers and crop cultivation.
On the government’s fertiliser subsidy programme, Mr Donkoh said, his company had invested massively into its operations to be able to meet the entire demand of the programme.
Under the fertiliser subsidy programme, government absorbs part of the cost of fertilisers for farmers to buy them at lesser prices from retailers.
Mr Donkoh disclosed, for example, that in addition to the warehouses and facilities visited by the Minister in Tema, CHEMICO had invested in a warehouse complex in Kumasi with the capacity to stock 70,000 tonnes of fertilisers.
“Such investments, I believe, can help us sustain the programme,” Mr Donkoh said, during a visit to CHEMICO by the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Mr Fifi Kwetey, last Thursday.
The visit was to enable the minister familiarise himself with the operations of the leading agro-chemical company and to address issues regarding the fertiliser subsidy programme.
The minister’s inspection also included visits to Chemico’s formulation and packaging plants for fungicides and insecticides where he observed the packaging of AKATEMASTER insecticide for Cocobod and also of COCOASETT and foliar products.
In his remark, Mr Kwetey commended CHEMICO for keeping faith with government on the fertiliser subsidy programme, despite recent budgetary challenges facing it.
He said CHEMICO had shown commitment by engaging the ministry towards finding solutions.
For his part, the Director of Sales & Marketing, Mr Prince Agyemang Yeboah, reiterated the value addition employed by the company in terms of its operations noting that CHEMICO had engaged more people which had helped cut down the unemployment figures in the country.
He said as key players in input supply to MOFA, Chemico would remain committed to the cause of promoting agriculture in the country.
Source: Graphic.com.gh
