Farmers' Day And Food Security: Quo Vadis Ghana?

Today, Friday 2 December 2011, marks the 27th celebration of Farmers¹ Day in Ghana, West Africa. The 2011 National Best Farmers' Awards is slated for December 2nd at Agona Nsaba in the Central Region and is to be held under the theme: Grow More Food: Research for Agriculture Development.

Ghana is one of few countries in the world that celebrate Farmers¹ Day as a public holiday. Introduced by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, National Farmers' Day was organized as a day¹s activity for the nation to honor its hard working farmers who excelled in their contribution to improve the agricultural sector with certificates and prizes. In 1988, the first Friday of every December was set aside by the government as Farmers' Day and is celebrated as a statutory Public Holiday.

It is ironic that the 2011 National Best Farmers' Awards will take place where the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Mr. Kwesi Ahwoi, contested the parliamentary candidacy for the constituency during the National Democratic Congress (NDC) primary last Saturday but lost. Rumours circulated that it was a campaign ploy by the Minister to garner votes in the constituency - a ploy that ended in a ³shocking² rejection of Mr. Ahwoi.

While the day is a day to recognise the huge contribution made by farmers to both the economy of the country and to food security in general, it must also be a day to reflect on the current global food crisis that is having devastating impacts on millions of people, including Ghanaians.

Global Food Crisis is Real

There is no doubt that the 2007 / 08 global food crisis never really went away. Spiralling and volatile food prices is driving millions of people into hunger. Oxfam reported the following in a report issued in 2011 titled ³Growing a Better Future²

"The food system is buckling under intense pressure from climate change, ecological degradation, population growth, rising energy prices, rising demand for meat and dairy products and competition for land for biofuels, industry and urbanization.²

The report says the number of people going hungry is expected to surpass one billion by the end of this year.

The reasons and cures for the global food crisis are the most debated issues today.

Lester Brown, a United States environmental analyst, says that whereas it's been weather that has caused a spike in commodities prices in the past, it is now trends on both sides of the food supply/demand equation that are driving up prices.

On the demand side, the culprits are population growth, rising affluence, and the use of grain to fuel cars.

On the supply side: soil erosion, aquifer depletion, the loss of cropland to non-farm uses, the diversion of irrigation water to cities, the plateauing of crop yields in agriculturally advanced countries, and - due to climate change - crop-withering heat waves and melting mountain glaciers and ice sheets. These climate-related trends seem destined to take a far greater toll in the future.

Closer to Home

There is little doubt that the global food crisis has a devastating effect on Sub-Saharan Africa. It is estimated that 26 percent or 239 million of ³hungry² people live in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Despite initial denials by the Government of Ghana (GoG) that there is no food crisis in Ghana, figures in a Gallup Poll revealed that 53 percent or roughly 12,7 million Ghanaians are ³in difficulties with basic food security.² This was strongly denied by the GoG who later acknowledged that there are more than a million people in the Northern regions having problems.

An independent research undertaken by AudienceScapes, a study sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, revealed that 17 percent of people older than 15 years of age in Ghana says that they do not have enough money to buy food. If this is not seen as indicative of the existence of a food crisis in Ghana, then Ghana has a big problem.

Hardships by Ghanaians regularly surface in the media and on political platforms, and it looks more and more likely that this issue may be the major focus of the 2012 general elections.

Recent reports of crop failures in the Northern parts of Ghana will add to the suffering of Ghanaians as it will have a direct impact on scarcity and thus a further rise in prices.

Farmers¹ Day and Food Security in Ghana - Quo Vadis?

As the country celebrates Farmers¹ Day, the question should be what the future holds for Ghanaians as far as food security goes.

Food Security Ghana (FSG) has been very critical about certain aspects of government policy in Ghana, as well as about propaganda issues where facts about agricultural ³achievements² are twisted to justify the ³Better Ghana Agenda².

The issue is not who is ruling the country, but rather what those rulers are doing to ensure food security for its people?

If this is anything to go by, the Daily Guide this week reported on the loss of Mr. Kwesi Ahwoi and quoted a farmer as saying, ³that although a section of Ghanaians have been praising Mr. Ahwoi for being one of the most hardworking ministers, he thinks otherwise alleging that apart from cocoa, agriculture did not do well in terms of contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), according to the 2012 budget statement.²

It is also alarming that the Minister steering the food security ship has by now twice made promises to resign if he does not meet ³his² targets. The first promise was made in September 2009, and no feedback was given in September 2011 when the deadline expired.

The latest promise made in October 2011 is that he will resign in one year if he has not halved the rice import bill within one year. This is highly unlikely and indications are rather that the rice import bill may rise even further.

Everybody knows that the solution to the food crisis is not easy achievable. All that Ghanaians are asking for is that the GoG / MOFA tackles the problem in a two-pronged way.

Firstly they expect the government to do whatever they can do to make food more affordable immediately, and secondly to substantially invest in agriculture and agricultural research in the medium to long term.

Many words are spoken about the government¹s commitment to food self-sufficiency, but little is done about immediate steps such as removing exorbitant import tariffs on basic foodstuff such as cooking oil and rice, to name but two examples.

While we hail the farmers of Ghana today, we can rest assured that millions of Ghanaians can¹t afford to buy a proper and nutritious meal on this day. We can also be assured that many challenging questions will be asked to the government about their alleged achievements on the agricultural front in the months to come.

Food Security Ghana

http://foodsecurityghana.com