The Member of Parliament for South Dayi, Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor has stated that Ghana should expect food shortages soon. He said fertilizer
The Member of Parliament for South Dayi, Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor has stated that Ghana should expect food shortages soon.
He said fertilizers have become so expensive that farmers cannot afford them.
In a tweet on June 27, he indicated that the price of fertilizer has shot up over 100%.
He indicated that a bag which was selling at GHS95.00 last year is now Ghc400.
According to him, it has now become cheaper to smuggle fertilizers from that smuggling from neighbouring Burkina Faso.
He added that it is brisk business to smuggle fuel from Burkina Faso and Cote D’Ivoire to Ghana.
“Food shortages to be expected soon. Farmers can’t afford to purchase fertilizers. Fertilizer was GHS95 last year and now it’s GHS400. It is now cheaper to smuggle fertilizer from Burkina Faso into Ghana. It is also brisk business smuggling fuel from Burkina Faso and Cote d’Ivoire to Ghana,” he stated.
Earlier today, NPP stalwart Gabby Otchere-Darko also indicated that, much as there was no food crisis in the country at the moment, food prices have fast skyrocketed.
He attributed the cause to global factors like challenges with supply chain and the rising cost of transportation.
Meanwhile, Minister for Agriculture, Dr. Afriyie Akoto has stated emphatically that, Ghana has no food crisis and would not experience any going forward.
He noted that there is enough food available.
He made this statement last week on Joy News’ ‘PM Express.’ “Every year they say the same thing and it never happens. That’s why I am saying that in the enclave of Techiman, in the markets we saw something like 25,000 metric tons of maize from last year’s harvest so what are they talking about. The high cost of food is because of external factors. The trebling of petrol which means that moving the food to the market more than triples the cost of production on the farm so if you used to do GHS120 per bag and now you are doing GHS400 per bag you don’t expect that the farmer will price it the same as before so all these are factors outside the domain which are having an impact. It doesn’t mean that the food is not there.”
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