Drought: Govt outlines GH¢8bn agric support – Provides GH¢1,000 per hectare incentive to farmers
The government has outlined an estimated GH¢8 billion ($500 million) plan on various interventions, mainly to support farmers affected by dry weather to ensure food security in the country. The funds will be sourced from a combination of the Contingency Fund, budget realignment and development partners.
The Minister of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), Dr Bryan Acheampong, at a press briefing in Accra yesterday, said estimates suggested that farmers in the affected areas had lost investments of approximately GH¢3.5 billion, risking a potential revenue loss of GH¢10.4 billion.
The minister said preliminary reports indicated that about 928,523 farmers’ 1.86 million hectares of crops were at risk and that those farmers would lose an estimated investment of GH¢7.4 billion, if there was total crop failure. Farmers totalling 435,872, cultivating an estimated area of 871,745 hectares, were those that had been directly affected by the dry spell, he said.
Dr Acheampong said maize, rice, groundnut, soybean, sorghum, millet and yam were the most widely affected crops across the Northern, Upper East, North East, Savannah, Upper West, Bono, Bono East and Oti regions.
“With the level of damage experienced and the estimates coming in, the ministry believes it will have to write off over 90 per cent of total expected production, which will occasion an investment loss of GH¢7.4 billion for farmers and a revenue loss of GH¢22 billion for all the affected areas,” Dr Acheampong said.
He showed some footages of destroyed farms before outlining the interventions the government had put in place to salvage the situation.
He said the GH¢22.2 billion estimated revenue loss represented 10 per cent of agriculture’s contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of GH¢220 billion.
Supporting him to address the issues were the Minister of Finance, Dr Mohammed Amin, who explained how the funding would be sourced, and the Defence Minister, Dominic Nitiwul, who also outlined steps to mitigate the effect of food shortage on the country.
The drought conditions, Dr Acheampong said, had far-reaching implications for food security and livelihoods.
The affected regions contributed about 62 per cent of the country’s grain supply annually, he said.
However, the minister added, from September to December, which coincided with the minor season of the southern sector, those regions contributed about 85 per cent of the country’s national grain requirement from their harvest.
“Given the projected crop failure, we are forecasting a significant shortfall in grain availability. Without any interventions, this could lead to nationwide food shortage and its resultant implications,” he stated.
In response to this phenomenon, he said the government was taking immediate actions to address the situation and that in the medium to long term, the sector would develop resilience to the climatic conditions as it rolled out more irrigation and water management schemes.
From now to January next year had been approved by the government for implementation by the ministry to avert a food security crisis, Dr Acheampong said.
But the first, he said, was a temporary ban on grains exports.
“With immediate effect, government is placing a ban on export of grains, including maize, rice and soya bean until the situation normalises. This measure is essential to ensure the availability of these critical crops on the domestic market,” he declared.
Dr Acheampong said there would also be a mopping up of stock from farmers and that “any farmer with stock and interested in selling should contact the District Department of Agriculture, District Aggregators or the Directorate of Crops of MoFA”.
In addition, the government would procure grains and poultry feed.
“Government will also bring in up to 300,000 tonnes of maize and 150,000 tonnes of rice to provide food support to vulnerable farmers who have lost their crop and also for the market”.
Source: Graphiconline
