Professor Charles Ackah, a lecturer in the University of Ghana’s Economics Department, has criticized agricultural planners for Ghana’s dependency on imports.
Prof. Ackah stated in an interview with Bernard Avle on ChannelOne TV that Ghana’s leaders only pay lip service to policies aimed at boosting the agricultural sector, with the exception of the late former President Kutu Acheampong, whom he credited with taking agriculture seriously.
“When it comes to food imports, I think that is an area we need to have a national conversation. The truth of the matter is that as you rightly said we have one of the most fertile lands blessed by God in all of Africa.
“If you see our attitudes towards agriculture, it’s nothing to write home about. We just play lip service, whether it’s Planting for Food and Jobs, Phase One and Phase Two. I think it’s probably former late President Kutu Acheampong who took something serious with agriculture.
“A country that imports food, basic things like tomatoes, onions, chicken, so many vegetables, from our Sahel neighbours, just shows that the people we put in charge of agricultural policy have failed massively. There’s no proper policy investment for agriculture, if agriculture fails, industries will fail…I think we need to focus on agriculture seriously,” he opined.
The Associate Professor at the Institute of Statistical, Social, and Economic Research (ISSER) has cautioned that a country lacking food sovereignty is vulnerable to difficulties.
He blasted Ghana’s lack of adequate food production, despite its arable lands, as a sharp “indictment” of the country’s leadership, emphasizing the importance of self-sufficiency in food production to provide food security for its people.
“In the current insecure global world, which we are in, if you don’t achieve food sovereignty or food security and energy sovereignty, you will be in big trouble. It’s a security issue, it’s a national security issue. That we don’t have a handle, or control to produce what we eat, is an indictment on the leadership of the country.
“When we have so much water resources, we have so much fertile land, the season is good for most part of the Southern part, in Afram Plains. I visited Afram Plains and interacted with the farmers. This current farming season, they are at the mercy of the weather. They are praying basically for rain. Some of them planted maize, and for two or three seasons it was not raining. all those maize seedlings were imported.”
He charged the government with failing to invest in agricultural universities, limiting their ability to do research on robust seedlings and increase food production in the country.
“We don’t have an investment in research and development like CSIR that can produce strong resilient seeds here. The government is not investing in agricultural colleges, and departments in KNUST, the University of Ghana, University of Cape Coast. So, we import, they have different names that they call them. When you import, they are very expensive,” he said.
Background
The Ghana Statistical Service’s 2023 Trade Report shows a trade surplus of GH₵20.7 billion with other African countries, up from GH₵13.2 billion in 2022.
Ten products accounted for more than one-third (38.3%) of all imports. The greatest import value was diesel-automotive gas oil (GH₵27.1 billion), followed by light oils, motor spirit, and super (GH₵22.3 billion).
These are the only two commodities that contributed over 10.0 percent each of all imports. Ghana imported from 214 countries and exported to 159 in 2023, compared to 208 and 160 respectively in 2022.
Between 2022 and 2023, food exports climbed by GH₵3.4 billion. Similarly, food imports increased by GH₵3.6 billion in the same timeframe.
However, the share of food goods in total commerce fell from 2022 to 2023, by 2.9 percentage points for exports and 0.7 percentage points for imports.
Cocoa products (62.4%) had the highest export rate, followed by edible fruits and nuts (12.7%). Grains, cereals, meat, animal or vegetable fats and oil, and fish products account for half (50.4%) of all food product imports into Ghana, representing a large component of the country’s
Worked but not rolled or flaked cereal grains, rice (packed over 5kg or in bulk), and shea nuts make over a quarter (25.4%) of all food goods imported into Ghana.
Following closely after are frozen poultry parts and offal, sugar, and animal guts, bladders, and stomachs, all of which account for more than 5% of food imports.
Ghana faced a trade deficit of GH₵4.8 billion in 2022, but reported a surplus of GH₵5.3 billion in 2023.
Shea nuts accounted for 82.3% of Burkina Faso’s total imports, worth GH₵1.9 billion. Burkina Faso will replace Nigeria as the top five African import origins in 2023, the sole change from 2022. Notably, Burkina Faso mostly supplies vegetables products, consulting 89.8% of imports.
