- Peasant Farmers Seek Bigger Agriculture Budget, Irrigation Push and Market Reforms Ahead of 2027
The Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana is calling on the government to allocate at least 10.00% of national expenditure to agriculture in the 2027 Budget and establish a dedicated agricultural development fund, warning that chronic underinvestment, weak market access and infrastructure deficits are squeezing farmer incomes despite improving macroeconomic conditions.
Bismark Owusu Nortey, Executive Director of PFAG, said Ghana’s stabilisation gains must increasingly translate into investment that addresses the structural constraints facing food production and protects smallholder farmers from market, climate and input-cost shocks.
Presenting the association’s proposals at the CSOs 2027 Budget Inputs engagement, he argued that agriculture remains significantly underfunded relative to its contribution to employment, rural livelihoods and food security.
PFAG estimates that agriculture received about 2.00% of national expenditure in 2025 and 2.18% in 2026, far below the 10.00% benchmark associated with Ghana’s commitments under the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme.
“Allocate at least 10% of national investment to the agricultural sector and increase allocation for effective implementation of the Feed Ghana Program,” the association said.
The demand creates a difficult fiscal trade-off because government must expand productive investment while maintaining the discipline needed to consolidate recent macroeconomic gains.
PFAG’s argument, however, is that agriculture should be treated less as recurrent social spending and more as productive investment capable of reducing food imports, strengthening rural incomes, creating employment and easing future pressure on food inflation.
The association points to the scale of the Feed Ghana Programme as evidence of the financing challenge. PFAG estimates that the programme requires about GH¢302 billion over four years, with government expected to provide GH¢176.7 billion, private investors GH¢42.4 billion and development partners GH¢83.1 billion.
For 2026 alone, PFAG says effective implementation required approximately GH¢66.7 billion, compared with an allocation of less than GH¢2 billion. The concern extends beyond headline allocations to actual releases, with the association arguing that delayed commitment authorisations from the Ministry of Finance have slowed the delivery of inputs and capital-intensive agricultural interventions.
PFAG estimates that only about GH¢200 million of almost GH¢2 billion earmarked for capital expenditure had received procurement approval as of June.
“This is unacceptable and the Ministry of Finance must commit to fast-track the timely release of funds to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in the second half of the year to ensure timely execution of interventions for the benefit of smallholders across the country,” the association said.
Timing is particularly important in agriculture because expenditure is tied to planting, fertiliser application and harvesting windows that cannot easily be postponed. A late budget release can therefore reduce the economic value of the allocation even if funds eventually arrive, which is why PFAG wants releases to commence ahead of the farming season and a larger share of agricultural spending directed towards capital investment.
Market access is the second major concern. PFAG’s 2026 monitoring indicates that more than 60% of farmers struggled to sell their produce, while post-harvest losses reached between 30% and 40% in some areas because of seasonal gluts, inadequate storage and weak market linkages.
Rice, maize, soya bean, cowpea, yam and cassava producers have been particularly exposed, with unsold produce remaining in warehouses and on farms or being lost entirely. PFAG warns that farmers unable to recover production costs from one harvest may be unable or unwilling to finance the next season, potentially turning today’s glut into tomorrow’s supply shortage.
The association is therefore calling for Commodity Aggregation Centres across all 16 regions, linked to digital platforms that connect farmers with buyers while providing market information and access to finance, insurance and extension services.
It also wants a “Farmers First” public procurement framework requiring institutions such as the school feeding programme, hospitals, prisons and the national buffer stock system to source directly from registered farmer groups at guaranteed minimum prices announced before planting.
PFAG is additionally pushing for immediate implementation of the rice import quota regime alongside investment in processing, warehouses and cold storage. The wider policy tension is clear: lower food prices help consumers and reduce inflation, but prolonged weakness in farm-gate prices can erode producer incomes and ultimately undermine domestic production.
Infrastructure forms another central pillar of PFAG’s proposals. The association wants accelerated completion of Farmer Service Centres under the Feed Ghana Programme, with 12 centres currently under construction but delays potentially leaving producers without affordable access to tractors, planters, threshers, inputs, storage and extension services at critical stages of the farming cycle.
Feeder roads and irrigation are also priorities. Poor roads increase transport costs and can leave perishable produce stranded in farming communities, while Ghana’s continued dependence on rain-fed agriculture leaves production exposed to drought, changing rainfall patterns and flooding.
PFAG wants at least 50% of resources under the Big Push programme dedicated to the Irrigation for Wealth initiative, alongside accelerated work on the Pwalugu Multipurpose Dam, rehabilitation of existing dams and greater investment in mechanised boreholes and solar-powered pumping systems.
Its most structural proposal is the creation of a dedicated agricultural development fund modelled on the Ghana Education Trust Fund.
PFAG argues that a ring-fenced mechanism would provide predictable financing for agricultural infrastructure and faster intervention during droughts, floods, input-price shocks and severe market disruptions.
“The PFAG believes that a lack of a dedicated funding source to undertake these emergency support services in a timely manner is partly to blame for these recurrent situations,” the association said. The proposal reflects a broader concern that conventional budget processes are often too slow for a sector where delays can permanently damage output and farmer incomes.
For government, the 2027 Budget will therefore test whether agriculture can move from being repeatedly identified as a strategic growth sector to receiving the scale, predictability and composition of investment required to perform that role.
PFAG’s message is that macroeconomic stability will mean considerably less to rural households unless it translates into functioning markets, irrigation, storage, timely public financing and sustainable farmer incomes.
