Farmers need timely information

Two weeks ago, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) took delivery of 500 tonnes of cereals from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Regional Food Security Reserve.

The cereals were to be distributed as food grants to eight regions experiencing dry spells, leading to the disruption of crop production in the country.

The beneficiary regions are Northern, Upper East, North East, Savannah, Upper West, Bono, Bono East and Oti. The cereals donated were maize, rice, millet and sorghum.

While thanking ECOWAS for the timely intervention, the Daily Graphic is wondering what criteria the ministry will use to distribute the food items to the beneficiaries. A question that arises is: if the food items are meant to feed the farmers because they would be hungry, then what happens to those who do not cultivate food? The rest of us are equally hungry then!

The ECOWAS may have a genuine intention of supporting the country to help vulnerable farmers caught up in the web of prolonged dry spells affecting their food production.

It is our expectation that the food would be distributed to the intended farmers and their families and not to other people based on other considerations.

To avoid any confusion, the Daily Graphic is of the opinion that instead of the supply of food to its member countries, the ECOWAS Regional Food Security Reserve could rather concentrate on partnering institutions such as the GMet and agriculture extension officers to provide technical services and capacity-building in the area of weather information for the farmers.

We believe that Ghana in its state now does not need food grant but capacity-building for the various actors because through such support, ECOWAS would have been teaching its member states how to fish rather than offering them fish.

With the return of the rains, we are of the conviction that some of the farmers will grab the opportunity to cultivate their crops.

But we are worried about the potential food shortage in the country this year and its impact on the overall economy.

Many of the farmers planted their crops as usual at the beginning of the rainy season, expecting a bumper harvest.

That was, however, not to be. There was no rainfall. Most of the crops withered, while other seeds could not even geminate because the soil was not moist enough.

The Daily Graphic wonders what kind of collaboration there is between the MoFA and the Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMet), which is said to have predicted intermittent dry spells during this year’s cropping season.

We are not only worried, but sad that even as the GMet is said to have predicted the intermittent dry spell, the MoFA through its agents could not advise farmers regarding the rain pattern to enable the farmers to determine when to plant and when not to.

Timely information for farmers is all that they needed to delay planting until the late rains, to begin planting. As of now, some of the farmers, considering the timing as late, desisted from replanting, while others have risked it.

It is a fact that times are changing and the MoFA through its agents and in collaboration with the GMet needs to give these farmers the needed information to be abreast of the times.

Climate change is real and has indeed changed our normal and natural way of doing things and so farmers too need to be educated on this to enable them to take informed decisions.

The paper also expects the MoFA to effectively collaborate with the CSIR-Food Research Institute to develop a new variety of crops that can resist drought and  mature early.

This kind of collaboration is vital if we want to continue to be food sufficient because food is life and, indeed, food is everything, so anything affecting food is a major security concern.