We need solution to rising cost of food items

The search for food security is a matter of grave concern as the nation continues to import huge amount of various food items.

Various policies such as the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ), which gave the impression of food stability, could not stand the test of time.

Good signs

The years 2018 and 2019 gave indications and direction that the country was truly on the way to food sufficiency as the programme ignited interest among the youth and the farmer population.

That was the period when neighbouring Burkinabes, Togolese, Ivorians and even those from the Sahelian region took advantage of the bumper harvest to load trucks of food items, especially from the northern part of the country.

Inflation rate for food

However, the situation turned for the worse as high cost of transportation occasioned by bad roads to farming areas and the greed of middlemen caused a significant rise in food prices.

It was clear that attaining food sufficiency in a country does not just sit on the shoulders of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture alone, but an inter-ministerial approach to tackling the escalating food prices.

Since February 2022, the inflation rate for food and non-alcoholic beverages in the country has been on the steady rise to unprecedented 61 per cent in January 2023. 

Inter-ministerial committee

The impact on rising cost of food prices hit the country harder in 2021 and by June 2022, the Cabinet set up a five-member ministerial committee to investigate the high prices of food items in the country in order to advise the government on actions to take to level off prices.

The committee, which was made up of Cabinet rank ministers, was to investigate and propose solutions to the pricing of food items to ease the burden on consumers.

The ministerial committee was made up of the ministers of Transport; Trade and Industry; Gender, Children and Social Protection; Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development; and Food and Agriculture.

By November 2022, the situation became so serious that the then sector Minister, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, organised truckloads of food items at the farm gates to sell at a relatively low price at the Farmers’ Market established on the premises of the ministry just to prove to Ghanaians that there was food at the farm gates at a relatively low cost.  

Even though the decision by the minister was strongly criticised, one thing was clear – there is enough food at the farm gates but scarce in the urban centres.

It is obvious from the above development that food sufficiency for a country is not just a matter of producing food by the farmers, but more importantly, there must be good transportation systems from the farm gate to the market centres, enough silos and warehouses and an efficient marketing system in place for farmers to benefit from their labour.

Ghana Commodity Exchange

The Ghana Commodity Exchange (GCX), structured as a public-private partnership set up, is a fantastic step because its aim is to link agricultural and commodity producers, buyers and sellers to secure competitive prices for their products.

The GCX needs to be promoted and marketed well among farming communities so that the smallholder farmer, would rest assured that he just does not need to sell his farm produce at a give-away price, but that the GCX is available to address such. 

Plight of farmers

Currently, the issue of middlemen is a big headache for farmers and the entire food chain. Earlier this year, the Daily Graphic was at Tease in the Afram Plains South District in the Eastern Region.

Interacting with the farmers, they openly lamented about how the middlemen fix the pricing of the farm produce for them.

The farmers complained that with the exception of tractors, no other means of transport could get to their farm gates; thus, making the carting of the food items too expensive for them.

As of the time the Daily Graphic visited the area, depending on the size of the tubers of yam, the middlemen bought 110 tubbers for between GH¢800 and GH¢1,800. Yet, when those yams get to Accra or the urban areas, they could cost between GH¢2,500 and GH¢3,500.

According to the farmers, the buyers often attribute the low amount paid for the products to the high cost of transportation.

For Opanyin S.K. Agyekum, a yam and maize farmer in Tease, the absence of storage facilities, especially for yam, is a major challenge for him. The perishable nature of the foodstuffs, compels farmers to sell their produce at give-away prices to prevent them from going bad.

He was of the view that a storage facility would enable farmers to not rush to sell their produce during the glut, so that at the appropriate time, when the prices appreciated, they could sell to maximise their profit.

Inter-ministerial report

So, it is good that the inter-ministerial committee was set up to find a lasting solution to the issue of the rising price of food items. Unfortunately, two years since the setting up of the committee, the cost of food prices continue to soar, with no sign of improvement.

Ghanaians should be interested in the outcome of the committee; the challenges identified, solutions proffered and the way forward.

The incoming government must equally be interested in the report from that inter-ministerial committee. After all, it is for the common good for the Ghanaian people. 

Writer’s email: severious.dery@graphic.com.gh