Assessing the Impacts of Fertilizer Subsidy Policies on Ghana’s Academic Study Trend and Characteristics

Government policies have long sought to make fertilizers accessible to farmers through subsidies, as fertilizers are known to enhance farm output and productivity. In this paper, we attempt to show the extent to which this policy emphasis has influenced the trend and characteristics of past academic studies on fertilizers in Ghana. We reviewed 37 peer-reviewed articles and four policy documents. These documents were collected by using databases, such as ProQuest, Web of Science, and Google Scholar, with the following keywords: fertilizer policy, fertilizer subsidies, agriculture policy, and Ghana. In examining the contents of these past studies and policy documents, we focused on productivity and profitability, income, fertilizer access, food security, and study areas. The results show that about 54% of the articles focused on profitability and productivity. In terms of study areas, about 52% examined northern regions. Our comparison between past studies and policy documents shows that Ghana’s past fertilizer studies closely corresponded with fertilizer policy implementation practices. Subsidies have considerably improved farmers’ access to fertilizers, increased fertilizer application rates, enhanced crop productivity, and contributed to mitigating food insecurity. On the contrary, none of the review looked at environmental impacts of increasing inorganic fertilizer use. Our review highlights the need for incorporating sustainability perspectives into studies on food and agriculture in Ghana.