For many Ghanaian farmers, the challenge is no longer only about producing food. The bigger challenge is producing at a cost that allows locally grown products to compete with cheaper imports on the market.
Dr. Frank Ackah, Senior Lecturer at the University of Cape Coast’s Department of Crop Science, says Ghana must tackle the high cost of agricultural production if local farmers are to compete effectively and consumers are to see more affordable food prices.
Speaking to The High Street Journal in an interview on the 2026 Mid-Year Fiscal Policy Review, Dr. Ackah acknowledged government’s efforts to reduce the cost of farm inputs, but said more work was needed to address the broader factors driving production costs in the agricultural sector.
He said the decline in prices of some fertilizers, pesticides and other farm inputs compared with previous years was a positive development for farmers.
“I must commend the government, I must commend the team for the price reduction because when you compare some of the inputs, how much it used to cost in 2024 and then you compare it now, it has reduced,” he said.
However, Dr. Ackah argued that Ghanaian farmers still operate under conditions that make local production more expensive compared with countries that supply food imports to Ghana.
He explained that many foreign farmers benefit from large-scale production, cheaper financing and better systems that reduce their cost of production, allowing them to sell at prices Ghanaian farmers struggle to match.
Using vegetables as an example, he said locally produced crops can become more expensive because farmers face higher input and financing costs compared with producers in countries such as South Africa.
“If you are producing carrots here, at the end of the day, the carrot that you produce here will still be more expensive than the one that somebody is importing from South Africa,” he said.
Dr. Ackah noted that while Ghana has made progress in reducing the cost of some inputs, issues such as expensive credit, limited economies of scale and dependence on imported seeds continue to affect farmers’ competitiveness.
He also highlighted the high cost of imported vegetable seeds as one of the challenges increasing production expenses for farmers.
According to him, Ghana’s reliance on imported planting materials means local producers often start farming with higher costs before production even begins.
“Even seeds, vegetable seeds are so expensive because we are importing almost all of them,” he said.
Dr. Ackah said strengthening local seed production, improving access to affordable financing and investing in agricultural infrastructure would be necessary to reduce production costs and improve competitiveness.
For him, reducing food prices will require more than increasing production. Ghana must build a system where farmers can produce efficiently, markets operate transparently and consumers eventually feel the impact of improvements across the agricultural value chain.
