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The Minister for Food and Agriculture (MoFA), Clement Kofi Humado, has expressed the government�s commitment to institute policies aimed at accelerating waste recycling and the generation of compost in the country. He also hinted the need to integrate organic fertiliser as a supplement to inorganic fertiliser in crop production. The minister, who was in the company of some directors of the ministry during a familiarisation tour of the Accra Compost and Recycling Plant (ACARP), said the government, as a public institution, had the responsibility to create an enabling environment for the private sector to develop, hence the decision to support the ACARP in the recycling of waste and the generation of compost from waste collected from the city of Accra. ACARP is a subsidiary of Zoomlion Company Ltd which is focused on processing waste into usable products such as compost, recycled plastic bottles and in the future � energy. The managing director of the company, Mr Owura K. Sarfo, who took the minister and his entourage round the facility, noted that ACARP recycled about 80 per cent waste collected and had a processing capacity of 600 tonnes. He explained that Accra was estimated to generate over 2500 tonnes of solid waste everyday but only 60 per cent of this waste, representing about 1,500 tonnes, was collected and disposed of. �As a country, we need to address the issue of the 40 per cent waste that is not collected because it poses varied environmental risks to our people,� Owura Sarfo stressed. He explained to the minister and his entourage that a greater percentage of waste generated in the country was organic and could be processed into compost for use in the agricultural sector. Mr Owura Sarfo stated that it was not the intention of ACARP to promote complete substitution of inorganic fertiliser with organic compost, and called for the ministry�s assistance in the promotion of compost for improved soil characteristics, as well as assistance in research into compost generation and use in the country. The MD of ACARP also appealed for an allocation of a portion of the government�s fertiliser subsidy to support compost preparation. The minister maintained that the ministry would do its best to ensure the sustainability of the facility. �We have now seen the product (compost). They have been able to wet our appetite so we are now going back to do the necessary re-organisation to see how to engage ACARP in terms of promoting their products at the farmer level� explained the minister in response to a question on how to integrate the recycled compost into the agricultural sector.