Old problems in the new solutions?  Politically motivated
allocation of program benefits and the “new” fertilizer
subsidies  Despite their disappointing performance in the recent
past, fertilizer subsidies have re-emerged as a tool in the
agricultural strategies of many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The new paradigm for fertilizer subsidies calls for use of such
mechanisms as vouchers to target benefits to poor smallholders
and public–private partnerships to develop private markets.
There is some belief that with these innovations, fertilizer
subsidy programs will circumvent the deleterious consequences of
the programs of the past. However, there has been a glaring lack
of innovation in how to prevent politics from dominating the
allocation of subsidy program benefits and exacerbating
inefficiencies as was the experience in earlier programs. This
paper studies how vouchers, which could be used towards the
purchase of fertilizer, were distributed amongst districts in
Ghana’s 2008 fertilizer subsidy program.