Food inflation to potentially skyrocket over myriad challenges in agric sector – Dr Nyaaba warns
Dr Charles Nyaaba, President of the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG), has warned of a potential skyrocketing food inflation as a result of the myriad of challenges facing farmers.
According to Dr Nyaaba, food inflation will rise to worse rates than that seen this year if no drastic measures are put in place by the government to mitigate the challenges faced by farmers and the sector at large.
Currently, food inflation per recent data released by the Ghana Statistical Service as of October stands at 44.8%.
Speaking on the NorvanReports and Economic Governance Platform X Space on the topic “Is Ghana’s Agriculture Sector In Danger” on Sunday, Dr Nyaaba mentioned low budgetary allocation, the disinterest of rice farmers to continue rice cultivation, climate change, the disinterest in financial institutions in financing farmers among others as the challenges adversely impacting increased production from the sector to ensure the country’s food security.
“Whenever agric fails to perform, all the other macroeconomic indicators do not perform well, and the budget allocation is always focused on cocoa instead of the crop sector which contributes more to GDP than cocoa.
“Some of the dangers facing the sector are rice farmers not willing to do tice farming next year because they were not able to sell what they produced this year because there were no buyers.
“Then there are the financial institutions showing disinterest in financing farmers, and for those that do, they agree to give us loans at 36% interest rate and also demand collateral in the form of landed properties,” he added.
“There are a lot of challenges facing farmers and the sector at large and if prudent measures are not taken to mitigate them, we are likely to see inflation skyrocket and go higher than what we witnessed this year,” he noted.
His assertion is on the back of the flooding of farms in the Volta basin which serves as the food basket of Ghana as a result of the Akosombo Dam spillage.
Already, there are projections that Ghana is likely to witness a food crisis starting in January 2024.
Speaking further, Dr Nyaaba called on the government to create an enabling environment that will aid farmers in increasing production thereby growing the agricultural sector and ensuring food security in the country.
