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Yara’s Grow Ghana Initiative to Help Empower Farmers, Boost Yields, and Enhance Food Security

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Yara Ghana took delivery of 18,000 metric tons of high-quality YaraMila Actyva fertilizer at the Port of Tema. The Norwegian multinational agricultural company, which has been established in Ghana since 2007, is committing USD 20 million to supply these fertilizers to local farmers. This is expected to benefit ~100,000 productive smallholder farmers and help enhance the country’s food security.

The war in Ukraine has compromised global access to affordable fertilizers, hindering farmers’ ability to feed their communities, threatening food security around the world. This impacts smallholder farmers directly, who need to apply crop nutrients in the form of mineral and organic fertilizers to their fields. If farmers cannot access reliable and affordable supplies of fertilizers, this will result in reduced yields and higher risks to local food production. Ultimately, this could impact food supplies, leading to larger numbers of people slipping into food insecurity.

Yara is working alongside smallholder farmers and trusted partners to secure access to high-quality fertilizers that will help strengthen Ghana’s national food security and deliver lasting, positive impact for farmers.

The program, “Grow Ghana,” will provide Ghanaian farmers with free bags of YaraMila Actyva as part of a package, effectively reducing the smallholder farmer’s average fertilizer cost by one-third. The goal is to help smallholder farmers have access to enough affordable fertilizer to sustain food production, and to feed over one million people across the country.

Luis Alfredo Pérez, Yara’s Senior Vice President for Africa, commented, “Yara believes that market-based solutions are the most effective response to strengthen Ghana’s national food security, and will have a better chance of delivering sustained impact for farmers. The global geopolitical situation and macroeconomic indicators suggest that the current global food supply challenges may persist for some time.

In this context, Yara is committed to multi-year responses. We will adopt a medium to long term approach to strengthening the enabling environment in our key markets. We hope to continue this project for at least three consecutive farming seasons.”

Danquah Addo-Yobo, Yara’s Regional Director for West Africa: “The Grow Ghana initiative brings a market-systems development approach to help productive smallholder farmers build resilience and sustainability. In the process, it will help them contribute to national food production. This initiative has the potential not only to help avert food insecurity across Ghana but also to catalyze a larger, continent-wide commitment to increase food system resilience, grow food security, and prevent hunger for 60 million people in Africa.”

About Yara International ASA

Founded in 1905 and headquartered in Oslo, Yara International ASA is the world’s leading crop nutrition company and a provider of environmental and agricultural solutions. The company has 18,000 employees and operations in more than 60 countries.

Supporting Yara’s vision of a world without hunger and a planet respected, the company pursues a strategy of sustainable value growth, promoting climate-friendly crop nutrition and zero-emission energy solutions. Yara’s ambition is focused on growing a nature positive food future that creates value for its customers, shareholders and society at large, and delivers a more sustainable food value chain.

About Yara Africa & Asia (YAA)

Yara Africa & Asia (YAA) was formed in June 2020; it is one of three key geographic business units within Yara International. Headquartered in Singapore – and with more than 1,800 employees across the region – YAA provides farmers in 22 market economies across Africa and Asia with the knowledge, crop nutrition solutions, and best practices to sustainably improve soil and crop health, yields, and economic livelihoods.

About Yara Ghana

Yara Ghana was established in 2007, in order to strengthen the quality and depth of input supply and related services along agricultural value chains in the country.

Yara Ghana key focus has been on providing Ghanaian farmers with knowledge, crop nutrition solutions, and digital technologies that can help them improve their yields and quality in an environmentally responsible and sustainable manner. This will help farmers achieve enhanced livelihoods while contributing to local, regional, and national food production, and to ensuring Ghana’s long-term food security.

Source: Yara Ghana/zaanews.com/Lilian D. Walter

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