According to Ministry of Food and Agriculture of Ghana, Ghana has a fertilizer requirement of 600,000 metric tonnes per annum (equivalent to fertilizer con- sumption of about 38.4 kg/ha.). In the years 2016 and 2017, 239,883 metric tonnes and 444,236 metric tonnes, respectively, were imported into the country. Thus, the nation fell short of supplying its fertilizer needs in those years. Indeed, the rate of fertilizer consumption in Ghana for the period 2006–2017 as shown in Table4.17 indicates that the country has almost always fallen short of its fertilizer need.
Ghana imports all its inorganic fertilizer need from other countries, namely, Morocco, Finland, China, Estonia, Latvia and Italy. Table4.18lists the types and quantities of fertilizers imported into the country in the period 2013–2019.
There is no plant in Ghana that produces primary inorganic fertilizer. Fertilizer plants in the country are predominantly blending plants (secondary production units) that import fertilizers in compounds and bulk which are blended into various formulations. Notable among the companies operating secondary fertilizer pro- duction pants are Yara Ghana and Chemico Limited, which are all located in the port city of Tema. Also, operating a secondary fertilizer production plant is MicroFertil, which is located in Kpong in the Greater Accra Region. Since the introduction of the government’sflagship program of Planting for Food and Jobs
4.5 Fertilizer Application Methods 131
(PFJ) in 2017 and the attendant increased demand for fertilizers in the country, a number of fertilizer blending plants have been set up to manufacture fertilizer for the local market. These include OmniFert Fertilizer Factory, a wholly-owned Ghanaian fertilizer manufacturing company located at Dawhenya in the Greater Accra Region. The company operates a total offive warehouses on a 12-acre land, with a total storage capacity of 100,000 metric tonnes. It specializes in blending its own variety of fertilizers and sources its stock from international suppliers. The company operates two blending plants and also sacks printing plant. The blending and bagging production rate of the plant is about 50 tonnes per hour. The largest fertilizer blending plant in the country is Glofert, which is situated at Asuboi in the Eastern Region of Ghana. Glofert produces fertilizer comprising, urea, ammonium, sulfate as well as various types of nitrogen, phosphate and potassium (NPK), which are widely used by farmers in Ghana and across the West African sub-region. The company has a production capacity of 120 metric tonne per hour (over 800,000 Table 4.17 Consumption and importation of fertilizer in Ghana from 2006–2017
Year Fertilizer import (metric tonnes) Fertilizer consumption (kg/ha.)
2017 444,236 31.2
2016 239,883 20.9
2015 290,156 23.5
2014 111,083 15.7
2013 296,086 25.3
2012 523,171 34.8
2011 57,144 13.2
2010 175,809 18.7
2009 182,281 19.0
2008 85,1923 14.5
2007 156,386 17.8
2006 206,014 20.1
Table 4.18 Fertilizer imports into Ghana in the period 2013–2019 (reproduced with permission from AfricaFertilizer.org. @2020)
Fertilizer name 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
NPK 117,047 44,880 138,440 132,632 213,887 224,176 217,024
Urea 36,104 202 18,348 23,268 88,259 42,005 77,011
Ammonium sulfate 54,863 6,282 64,015 23,268 43,865 15,993 42,235 Organic fertilizers 6,465 5,523 7,818 8,772 37,643 9,460 29,300
TSP 47,173 21,258 32,052 13,802 26,766 10,084 17,326
MOP 19,849 22,715 18,707 13,842 24,325 5,875 4,673
Other fertilizers 16,587 10,223 11,077 8,532 9,582 7,564 37,542 Total (mt) 298,086 111,083 290,156 239,883 444,236 315,157 425,110
132 4 Fertilizer Technology
metric tonnes per year). Thus, when operated at full capacity the company can supply all the fertilizer need of the country.
Other factories producing fertilizers in the country include Jekora Ventures, which produces organic fertilizer from fecal sludge and agro-industrial waste. The plant is a joint venture between International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and Jekora Ventures Limited. It has a production capacity of about 200 metric tonnes of compost annually. It is located at Somanya in the Eastern Region of Ghana. SafiSana Ghana Limited is yet another plant producing organic fertilizer in Ghana. It is located at Ashaiman in the Greater Accra Region. The SafiSana plant processes 25 tonnes per day of local organic waste and the output of the Communal Service Blocks into fertilizer and biogas.
Further Readings
AfricaFertilizer.org. (2020). Fertilizer statistics overview—Ghana, 2015–2019, 2020 edn.
Engelstad, O. P. (Ed.). (1985).Fertilizer technology and use(3rd ed.). Soil Science Society of America, Madison.
Fertilizer Association of India. (1977). Handbook of fertilizer technology, 2nd edn. Fertilizer Association of India, New Delhi.
Gowariker, V., Krishnamurthy, V. N., Gowariker, S., Dhanorkar, M., & Paranjape, K. (2009). The fertilizer encyclopedia, 1st edn. Wiley-Blackwell, Hoboken.
https://africafertilizer.org/blog-post/fertilizer-statistics-overview-ghana-2015-2019/. Accessed 07 Jun 2020.
Industrial Development Organization, U. M. (Ed.). (1998).Fertilizer manual(3rd ed.). Springer.
Lowrison, G. C. (1989).Fertilizer technology. E. Horwood.
Mishra, B. (2012).Technology and management(1st ed.). IK International Publishing House Pvt.
Ltd.
Mortvedt, J. J. (1999).Fertilizer technology and application. Meister Pub. Co.
Munn, V. (Ed.). (2018).Fertilizer technology and soil fertility. Larsen and Keller Education.
Palgrave, D. A. (Ed.). (1991).Fertilizer science and technology, 1st edn.CRC Press, Boca Raton.
Park, M. (2001).The fertilizer industry(1st ed.). Woodhead Publishing.
Shishir, S., Pant, K. K., & Bajpai, S. (2015).Fertilizer technology I: Synthesis, 2 vol. Stadium Press, LLC, Houston.
4.6 The Fertilizer Industry in Ghana 133
5
Cement and Clay Products Technology
Abstract
Cement is used mostly in the construction, plumbing and masonry industries where itfinds its application in the production of concrete, preparation of mortar, marking grout, and the preparation of stucco. Two types of cement are used in the construction industry, namely hydraulic cements (e.g. lime, gypsum plasters, oxychloride) and non-hydraulic cement (e.g. Portland cement). There are special cements that have Portland as the base but formulated for special applications, such as expansive cement, super high strength, alinite and special high C2S cements. In this chapter, the chemistry of cement manufacture and the production processes have been covered. Refractories that are ceramic materials with high strength and fracture toughness have also been covered. They are inert to most chemical attacks, abrasion-resistant and can withstand high temperatures above 1100 °C. The techniques used to manufacture refractory materials have been presented in this chapter, namely the mold and burn process, electric fusion process and ceramicfiber formation process. There are safety and environmental concerns associated with the production and use of cement such as noise pollution, emissions of dust particles, chromium content and the release of large amounts of CO2, NOx and SOx emissions. Methods applied to minimize and control the safety and environmental problems have been considered. Finally, an overview of the cement industry in Ghana has been presented.