Deep institutional leadership reforms and stronger accountability systems are critical to unlocking Ghana’s vast potential in the tomato industry, Dr Amos Rutherford Azinu, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Legacy Crop Improvement Centre (LCIC), has said.
Speaking in an interview, Dr Azinu warned that Ghana risked losing a sector blessed with significant natural advantages due to mismanagement and weak institutional discipline.
Reflecting on the theme, “Ghana’s Tomato Industry: A Nation Sitting on Gold but Dying of Hunger,” he said the country’s challenges were not rooted in climate or land availability, but in leadership and accountability gaps.
“Our challenge is not climate or land. It is leadership. It is accountability,” he said.
Dr Azinu argued that poor attitudes toward public resource management, dishonesty and weak enforcement of standards had undermined decades of agricultural progress.
According to him, such behaviours had weakened institutions and derailed programmes intended to improve farmer livelihoods.
He recalled that under Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana adopted a scientific and strategic approach to agricultural industrialisation, including the establishment of tomato processing factories in Wenchi in the Bono Region and parts of the Upper East Region.
“Nkrumah understood the agronomy,” Dr Azinu said. “He positioned processing factories where tomato production thrived best.”
However, he noted that policy neglect over the years led to the collapse of those factories, shifting the country’s focus from production to trading.
“We moved from producing to importing tomato paste while our local capacity deteriorated,” he said.
Dr Azinu questioned the impact of several public and donor-funded interventions aimed at reviving the tomato sector. He cited concerns about the OBATANPA CARE Project, which was intended to support tomato seed production.
“Money was released, but where are the seeds? Where is the accountability?” he asked.
According to him, many initiatives had generated reports and workshops but delivered limited tangible improvements in seed systems and productivity. As a result, Ghana continued to rely heavily on imported tomato paste despite its favourable growing conditions.
Dr Azinu also criticised what he described as an increasing culture of conferences and foreign trips among agricultural professionals without corresponding benefits for farmers.
“People travel, take photographs and speak about Ghana’s potential, but very little returns to farmers in the form of improved varieties or stronger systems,” he said.
He stressed that capacity-building programmes must translate into measurable reforms to justify public and donor funding.
“If change does not reach the farmer, then the benefits were personal, not national,” he added.
Touching on seed system governance, Dr Azinu said some seed associations had drifted from their original mandate of promoting innovation and quality standards.
“They were established to support farmers and improve seed quality. Instead, some have become platforms to access grants,” he said, urging a refocus on farmer-centred priorities.
Despite the challenges, Dr Azinu expressed optimism that the tomato industry could recover if decisive leadership reforms were implemented.
“The land is here. The climate is here. The blueprint is here,” he said. “What we need is integrity at every level, personal, institutional and professional.”
He called for full transparency in the management of agricultural grants, restructuring of seed associations and a renewed emphasis on production-driven policies.
“We must stop celebrating imports and start valuing what we can grow,” he urged.
Dr Azinu maintained that Ghana’s constraints were not due to lack of potential but rather weak oversight and accountability structures.
“Ghana is not poor in potential,” he said. “It is poor in accountability. Leadership reforms and stronger oversight can unlock the full potential of our tomato industry and secure the future of our agriculture.”
