Food prices may continue to rise if the government does not intervene, peasant farmers warn

The Ghanaian Peasant Farmers Association has warned that unless the government intervenes, food prices will continue to rise.

According to the Ghana Statistical Service’s most recent data, food inflation reached 22.4 percent in March 2022, up from 17.4 percent in February 2022.

According to the association, despite the impact of the Russia –Ukraine war on the global food value chain, the current situation being faced by farmers also reflects a failure of agricultural policies under the Akufo-Addo Administration, particularly the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) Programme.

Speaking on The Big Issue on Citi TV, the Programmes Officer of the association, Bismark Owusu Nortey said this was expected, as the association had earlier sounded the alarm.

“The current price increases in food can be traced back to 2021.” We drew the attention of the government to the challenges we were facing with food production in 2021. We had trouble getting fertilizer around May of last year. We paid GH48.00 for the 25kg at the time. We wanted to enlist the help of the government to see how we could adjust the prices. For 25kg, the prices were adjusted to GH23. Despite this, we had difficulty obtaining fertilizers for the farmers. We raised the alarm about a potential food shortage, but the government rebuffed us and swept the issue under the rug.”

He warned that if the government “sits unconcerned,” the situation could get worse.

He urged the government to implement policies that will help to avert the crisis and boost food production this year.
“The bad news is that the situation may deteriorate. The factors we highlighted last year have now multiplied. Food prices may skyrocket by the end of the year if nothing is done about the situation.”

“The price of fertilizers has doubled this year compared to last year. Weedicide prices are also rising. Last year, we estimated the cost of producing an acre of maize to be around GH1,700. We did an estimate for the same acre in March of this year, and we were looking at around GH3,000. The difference is nearly one hundred percent. Who will foot the bill for this? It can’t possibly be the farmer. If the government does not intervene, it will be passed on to the consumer,” he added.