– Agricultural Analysts
An Agricultural Analyst and the spokesperson on agriculture for the National Democratic Congress, Dr Peter Boamah Otokunor, has attributed the recent surge in food inflation to a lack of structural reforms and ineffective policy implementation.
He said the government must implement policies that address issues of smallholder farmers and put in place structural initiatives to enable farmers to produce regularly in large quantities.
Currently, Ghana’s inflation for November 2024 increased to 23% from 22.1% in October 2024 representing a 0.9% increase. This means that the average Ghanaian with low or middle income will have to pay more for their groceries, bringing about a high cost of living in the country.
This, Dr Otokunor said was worrying and called for policies that would subsidize agro inputs for farmers, or give farmers fertilizers on credit bases to be sold to produce in large quantities every period.
“Now one bag of fertilizer is GHC600 as compared to GHC65 in 2016, how will farmers get to purchase these fertilizers for farming?”, he added.
He said these price shocks on the international market have been the main factor for farmers to produce in Ghana because some of these agrochemicals are not produced in Ghana hence the need to import more for farming.
The agricultural analysts said this shock can only be solved by the government, by procuring these agrochemicals from the international markets and subsidising them or crediting them to farmers to ensure that farmers still produce despite high prices on fertilizers and other products.
He said Ghana spends US$400 million yearly alone on tomatoes, which is 60% of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) facility loaned money to the country.
Dr Otokunor also attributed the increase in food imports to the lack of bigger lands for farmers to grow crops, while adding that the lack of storage facilities also hinders farmers from producing more crops.
Touching on the impact of climate change, he said the government must ensure water bodies are protected from illegal mining and other human activities. He added that an effective irrigation system must be built, especially for use during the dry season.
He said the NDC government, when voted into office, will create farming service centers that will help regulate farming activities such as subsidies on agrochemicals and giving farmers equipment like tractors on credit.
He said Mahama-goverment will set up agro-industry enclaves in various regions to ensure that some crops like cashew nuts and tomatoes are monitored effectively to be grown for local consumption and export.
