By Mohammed AWAL
The Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana has warned that delays in rolling out the second phase of the country’s flagship Planting for Food and Jobs programme could severely impact food security.
According to the association’s president, Weipa Addo Awal Adugwala, farmer registration under PFJ Phase 2 is still ongoing despite it being the peak of the rainy season, with some districts registering only 10-20 percent of farmers so far.
“This could force farmers to buy expensive farm supplies from open markets, reducing planted areas. With 40% food inflation already, lower production from untimely inputs may push prices up over 50% and worsen access to affordable food,” he said.
Time is of the essence
Speaking with Business and Financial Times (B&FT) at the sidelines of a stakeholders’ engagement workshop on implementing the second phase of PFJ in Accra, Mr. Adugwala called on government to speed up registration through deploying more personnel or piloting the programme in select areas.
“Any disruption to input distribution risks hurting yields, farmers’ incomes and overall domestic food supply,” he stated.
As Ghana grapples with global food price hikes, delays in the PFJ programme could undermine national food security and if swift action is not taken to ensure farmers receive support on schedule for the current growing cycle.
Soaring prices in Northern Ghana
Already, prices of some commodities in the Tamale metropolis and Sagnarigu municipality of the Northern Region are soaring following price increases of fuel, transportation, farm input devices and other factors.
Prices have not been stable since beginning of the year, and been a headache for traders, residents, government and private workers who have not seen any increment in salaries and other remuneration and therefore had to strive to make ends meet.
Some traders and residents have also been expressing worry over the price hikes for goods and services, school fees, utility tariffs as well as accommodation, which has put pressure on families to always seek assistance in order to meet family needs.
They noted that failure of policymakers to address the issues might not augur well for the country meeting any of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2023.
Market survey data obtained by B&FT from the market and some shopping malls in the metropolis and municipality indicated that prices of major food items such as maize, soya bean, cowpeas and vegetables continue to increase.
In Tamale, most of the traders and consumers rely on the vegetables from Burkina Faso sold from trucks at Choggu Market. A bowl of Jasmine local rice which used to be GH¢15 now goes for GH¢30.00; Nasia from GH¢30 to GH¢40;, ginger from GH¢20 to GH¢30 per bowl; maize from GH¢15 to GH¢30; a crate of eggs from GH¢18 to GH¢30, depending on the size; Frytol oil 4.5L was GH¢65 but is now GH¢110.00; Ideal milk 30ml was GH¢4.50 but is now GH¢6; brown sugar 1kg was GH¢12 and is now GH¢20; Royal Aroma Rice 5kg was GH¢45 but is now GH¢95 while Lele is GH¢95-150; and Voltic Cool Pac medium goes for GH¢32 and big size GH¢34.
