The Alliance for Green Revolution Africa (AGRA) on the celebration of World Food Day today (Ocotber 16) is calling on governments across Africa to invest more in Agriculture as it is the lifeline to every economy.
A statement from the West Africa Regional Head of AGRA, Forster Boateng stated that the COVID-19 pandemic struck Ghana at a time when the country was grappling with youth unemployment, effects of climate change, and 2.5 million people (5% of the total population) who are food insecure.
He said the measures aimed at tackling the health crisis by the Government within the context of the pandemic have had short, medium and long-term impacts on food and nutrition.
“The severity of the measures on the agriculture sector was relatively low in comparison to industry and service sectors of the Ghanaian economy during the three-week lock-down and mobility restrictions” he said.
Mr Forster Boateng added that the apparent low impact of the pandemic on the agricultural sector could be attributed to the modest achievement of the Government’s popular and transformational agricultural flagship programme, Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ).
He noted that the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), in 2017 under its State Capability Support Investment portfolio, provided technical assistance to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to design the five-year flagship programme aimed at increasing productivity and production of smallholder farmers in staple food crops and vegetables.
The programme according to him, has within three years facilitated the access of two million farmers to improved seeds, fertilizers, extension services and markets.
Among the key results of the PFJ are: increased production volume of maize from 1.9 million tons in 2017 to 3.5 million tons in 2019 making Ghana now self-sufficient in maize production; and locally milled rice production increased from 498,000 tons in 2017 to 665,000 tons in 2019, and with national consumption estimated at 1.3 million tons, Ghana is said to be at 51% self-sufficient in rice production.
Mr Forster Boateng in the statement said the expectation of the government is to become
fully self-sufficient by 2025.
However, in spite of the numerous challenges confronting the sector, the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr Boateng intimated presents a unique opportunity for Ghana to double down on its efforts to building a resilient agri-food system.
He said accelerating investments in the agriculture sector is imperative for economic recovery and growth during and after the COVID-19 pandemic adding that, building back better, will require an enabling regulatory business environment and public sector investments informed by evidence in infrastructure, research, and development to leverage private sector investment to drive sustainable food systems.
These will require a concerted effort of Government, Development Partners, private sector mainly SMEs, and non-state actors to facilitate investments toward addressing systemic bottlenecks in the agriculture sector – agro-input distribution system, extension (digital), mechanization, value chain financing, structured market, regional trade, logistics and infrastructure – while ensuring mutual accountability.
As World Food Day is being marked today, the West Africa Regional Head of AGRA stated that there is the need to recognize the significant role of SMEs in driving agricultural transformation that benefits millions of smallholder farmers, meeting the food demand of the ever-growing urban population, and creating decent jobs for the teeming unemployed youth.
Story Filed By: Yonne Atilego.