Stumbling Blocks En Route to Food Security

Food security is certainly the biggest issue that the world should address and that governments globally, including Ghana, should place on top of the agenda.

Even though Ghana is seen as a country that is tackling this issue there are indicators that all may not be as rosy as is being projected.


Firstly we are experiencing a food crisis despite denials by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA). Food Security Ghana (FSG) has been stressing this point time and time again.


The true fact is that too many Ghanaians (51.8%) are still under the the global poverty line and that affordability of food is a major concern in Ghana.


The decline of the Ghana cedi has added to the woes of Ghana consumers. Over the last two years the cedi has declined by 25% wreaking havoc on prices of goods in general and foodstuff in Ghana specifically.


The weakening cedi not only increased the cost of inputs to local food production via increased cost in fertilisers and mechanical equipment but also inflated the cost of imported foodstuffs such as wheat, oil, poultry, rice and many others.


Secondly the government has doggedly refused to support consumers amidst this crisis by reviewing trade policies, and specifically duties and taxes on foodstuff.


While neighbouring countries such as the Ivory Coast and Mali has scrapped duties on staple food such as rice to help struggling consumers, the Ghana government on insistence by MOFA has kept duties at an incredibly high rate of 37%.


The explanation by the government that high duties are essential to promote local production has been rubbished by not only FSG, but by analysts worldwide.


To try and explain this point, let us look at import duties on cars. Will excessively high import duties on cars suddenly spurn a car manufacturing industry in Ghana? No, it will not. The only result of such a misguided policy has been to cause massive smuggling of cars via Lome.


The same happened with rice when the current government scrapped the 20% import duty relief given by the previous government to help Ghanaians during the 2007 / 08 food crisis. It created a huge differential between duties in Ghana and the Ivory Coast and led to massive smuggling of rice on Ghana�s Western border.


The differential today is even higher after the Ivory Coast has scrapped import duties on basic foodstuff such as rice to help their struggling consumers, and smuggling will reach new levels in Ghana.


We have touched on the fact that there is a real and pressing food crisis that is creating major hardship for millions of Ghanaians, and on a perception that the government is totally insensitive to support consumers in the short term.


Thirdly another major concern is the levels of investment in agriculture - both in agricultural research and in agriculture per se.


The food and agriculture Minister of Ghana has publicly lamented the fact that the 2012 budget does not provide enough money for investment in agriculture, and has challenged the Ministry of Finance to come up with a solution.


This is indeed a serious concern when ministries start playing the blame game while Ghanaians are suffering.


The recent announcement by MOFA that the government is now looking for investment from Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) to strengthen the country�s agricultural value chain might be a positive step but it must be questioned why this step has been been taken much earlier.


In the fourth place the inability to implement and control policy initiatives are further stumble blocks in the quest for food security in Ghana.


The initiative to provide credit to smallholder farmers backfired terribly when collection of debts turned out to be impossible. Subsidised fertiliser are being trafficked to neighbouring countries at huge profits that means no meaningful gains in crop yields can be expected.


Promises of mechanised support has as yet not materialised and a dramatic shortfall in the number of extension workers is hampering the transfer of knowledge to smallholder farmers.


Another worrying factor is planning time horizons. It took Ghana many years to become import dependent on certain foodstuff such as poultry and rice, and it will take many years and a lot of investment to reverse the situation.


Under such circumstances one would expect that plans should be devised based on a transition strategy that will allow for short, medium and longer term goals and objectives. However, the government has stuck doggedly to promises to reverse the situation in the short term - promises that are surely not going to be met.


While this is going on import duties on basic foodstuffs is extremely high relative to neighbouring countries. A sensible strategy under circumstances where the import dependency exceeds the 70% mark one would have thought that duties would be dropped and gradually increased as the local industry grew.


Currently it looks as though little headway is made to narrow the gap between imports and locally produced foodstuff while consumers under difficult economic circumstances have to bear the brunt of high import duties.


In addition it is of great concern that the government is chasing quantity while one of the major reasons for import dependency is based on the low quality of locally produced foodstuff such as poultry and rice. Producing more low quality foodstuff will in fact increase the problem rather than reduce it.


The greatest concern is surely the underperformance of agriculture compared to objectives stated in policy documents. In 2011 the growth in agriculture was in the region of 2.5% compared to a stated objective of at least 6% per year.


The reason for this may be due to various factors, but it is clear that there is a wide gap between policy, plans and execution. If this trend continues more and more people in Ghana will be further pushed into a situation where the struggle for survival will become harder and harder.


The policies for food security dates back to 2007 and were devised when the NPP was in control of matters. The question is if these policies have really been subjected to proper review, and whether the time has not come for a rethink about the road ahead.


One thing is certain, and that is that continuing with the current roadmap towards food security casts major doubts about the longer term outcome. It is time that both the current government as well as the opposition need to answer to the people of Ghana on how they plan to ensure a food secure Ghana.

Source: Food Security Ghana