Some grain farmers in the country are frustrated as their produce from the 2024 harvest, quantified to be about 100,000 metric tonnes, remains unsold, locking capital and zeal for farming.
This means that the country’s Ghana’s agricultural sector is facing a troubling paradox. There are plenty of harvests, yet farmers’ pockets are empty. More than 100,000 metric tonnes of maize and rice remain unsold across the country, leaving many farmers in distress despite one of the most productive harvest seasons in recent years.
According to a new brief by IMANI Africa, titled “Food Glut in Ghana: When Production Outpaces Market Planning,” the crisis is not a result of overfarming but poor foresight. The think tank argues that Ghana’s agricultural policies have, for years, focused almost entirely on boosting production while neglecting what happens after the harvest.
“The situation exposes the deeper weaknesses within Ghana’s agricultural market system”, IMANI noted.
This, the report explains, means that whenever production rises, as it did in 2024 under government-led initiatives to boost staple crop output, the market system struggles to absorb the surplus. Farmers are left with overflowing warehouses, deteriorating produce, and mounting debts, while buyers are scarce.
The lack of storage facilities, poor transportation networks, and weak coordination between farmers, processors, and buyers has created a chain reaction of inefficiency. In many farming communities in the Northern, Bono East, and Volta Regions, traders are offering farmers prices far below production cost, or not showing up at all.
“Over the years, agricultural policies have focused heavily on increasing production. While these policies helped boost output, they did not adequately address post-harvest management, storage, processing, and market linkages. This means that when production rises, as it did in 2024, the system struggles to absorb the surplus,” IMANI’s brief added.
It continued, “There are limited storage facilities, poor transportation networks, and weak coordination between farmers, processors, and buyers.”
But the problem doesn’t end there. IMANI also points to Ghana’s import management failures as a major aggravating factor. Despite the local surplus, cheap imported rice and maize continue to flood markets nationwide. This situation is made worse by weak border controls and poor enforcement of import standards.
The result is that local farmers are being pushed out of the market. Already, some farmer groups are threatening to boycott this year’s farmers’ day event if the government fails to take action.
“Even as local farmers struggle to sell their grains, importers continue to flood the market with cheap rice and maize. Weak border controls and poor enforcement of standards have made this worse. This not only discourages farmers but also undermines national efforts to promote food self-sufficiency,” the think tank observed.
IMANI warns that unless the government shifts its focus from production targets to market systems, Ghana will continue to experience such wasteful gluts. The think tank recommends a stronger national framework for storage, processing, and coordinated marketing, as well as tightened border management to protect local producers.
This signals that unless production policies are complemented with post-harvest planning, the outcome will always be waste. This means that if the country wants to achieve food security and self-sufficiency, it must treat post-harvest management and market linkages with the same urgency as production.
