Ghana has extensive areas of land suitable for agriculture but the soils are productive only with proper management. Traditional, soil exhausting, cultivation practices are still used extensively. The average rate of fertilizer application on most crops is low and the removal and loss of plant nutrients substantially exceed their replacement. After a period of rapid increase in the 1970s, the consumption of fertilizers started to decline in the early 1980s and only recently recovered its former level. Most crops respond economically to fertilizers and organic manure. Inadequate credit facilities, unsatisfactory produce marketing arrangements and the relatively small area receiving irrigation, despite the underutilization of several large irrigation projects, are among the identified constraints to increased fertilizer use.
