Ghana gets fertiliser dashboard to bridge information gap

A new dashboard, known as “Visualising Insights on Fertiliser for African Agriculture”, has been created for Ghana to serve as an information generation tool to help enrich decision-making among stakeholders in the fertiliser industry.

The dashboard, to be launched on 22 September in Accra, is also expected to assist industry actors to respond appropriately to changes in the fertiliser market while ensuring that sufficient and appropriate fertilisers reach Ghanaian farmers at the right time.

Under a public and private sector initiative, and with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the dashboard has been developed by the Development Gateway (DG), an international non-profit organisation which creates innovative information management and data visualisation technology for countries.

It was developed in partnership with AfricaFertilizer.org (AFO), a premier source for fertiliser statistics and information in Africa which is an initiative of the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC).

Comprehensive data

Outdooring the dashboard to the media in Accra on Friday, Wekem Raymond Avatim, Ghana country lead for Gateway Development, said the dashboard is the product of a collaborative effort with key partners from the public and private sectors which seeks to address many challenges in agriculture.

He said the tool specifically will fill key fertiliser information gaps, provide data to assist policy and investment decisions, and also make up-to-date and comprehensive fertiliser data available to meet the needs of stakeholders.

Avatim said that so far, the dashboard has been introduced in Kenya and Ghana within the sub-region because of the availability of data in these two countries, adding that Mali will be the third country to receive it.

The key beneficiaries, he said, will be farmers, “who work to ensure agriculture production and productivity”.

Rising prices

Phred Gyasi, a website and fertiliser statistics specialist with the IFDC, said the dashboard will serve as a critical tool to inform stakeholders on prices of fertilisers and their availability on the market.

For instance, Gyasi said, the price of fertiliser has increased steadily on the international market through much of 2021 because of the impact of COVID-19, which caused many manufacturing companies to halt production, creating shortages.

Gyasi said the dashboard will publish accurate monthly information on such developments within the IFDC, enabling farmers and agriculture specialists to be properly informed, especially at the policy level.

The 22 September launch will be attended by leading stakeholders, including officials from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), USAID and other development partners, as well as fertiliser-producing companies.

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