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The Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture, Yaw Frimpong Addo, has said it is untrue that there is a food crisis in Ghana.
He explained that there is a clear distinction between food availability and pricing and many Ghanaians misconstrue the high prices of some foodstuff to mean food shortage.
Mr Addo made the statement while addressing the media on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, in Techiman, Bono East Region, as part of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture’s (MoFA) six-day tour of five regions.
According to him, the tour comes after the sector was informed by statements, especially in Accra and some big cities, claiming there was a food shortage in the country.
“Around this time of the year, food prices are high, but fortunately for Ghana since 2016 till now, there has been high stock of maize,”
“So it is totally false for people to sit somewhere and say that there is maize or food shortage in Ghana,” the Minister debunks.
He noted that about 270,000 metric tonnes of maize were available in about 10 satellite markets in the Bono East Region.
Mr Addo however sympathised with farmers as buyers of their produce beat them down.
He gave a firm assurance that the current government will do everything humanly possible to prevent hunger in the country.
The deputy Minister used the platform to rubbish claims by many that President Akufo-Addo’s Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) programme has failed to make an impact on the agriculture sector.
“In 2016, we use to see trucks loaded with sacks of maize from Niger come to Ghana because at the time we were experiencing shortage. But ever since we started the Planting for Food and Jobs initiative in 2017 till now, records available at the Techiman maize market indicate that these same trucks from Niger come to buy maize and other foodstuffs from the Techiman market to Niger,” he indicated.
This, he said, was very significant, “because we are now producing far in excess to sell to other African countries.”
Consequently, Mr. Addo admonished politicians to help reduce the political temperature in the country.
“If we don’t have a very good political temperature in this country to allow farmers the space and peace of mind to go about their businesses, it will affect us all,” he cautioned.
He was, however, optimistic that when farmers begin to harvest the new maize, prices of maize will naturally reduce to the benefit of Ghanaians.
