Government bans export of grains

To guarantee that food products are available on the domestic market, the government has imposed a temporary embargo on the export of grains, starting immediately.

The decision was made because of the risk of a shortfall of eight regions’ worth of maize, rice, millet, and sorghum as a result of this year’s unpredictable rainfall patterns from June to August.

To help the impacted farmers, the government has consequently agreed to provide US$500 million from the World Bank, the Contingency Fund, and other donor partners.

In order to support the poultry sector, the nation will also import 300,000 metric tonnes (MT) of maize, 150,000 MT of rice, and 26,000 MT of chicken from the ECOWAS Grain Reserve.

This was disclosed by Food and Agriculture Minister Bryan Acheampong on Monday during the Minister’s news briefing in Accra regarding steps to lessen the present dry period in the eight regions.

Eight regions—Northern, Upper East, North East, Savannah, Upper West, Bono, Bono East, and Oti—are facing dry spells or irregular rainfall patterns.

“The dry spell led to the disruption of crop production. The lack of rain over the past two months has severely impacted the planting season in many of the farming areas.

“Some notably affected communities in the Upper East Region are Gabuliga, Teshie, Boya and Ankpaliga,” he stated.

According to Acheampong, crops that were grown in advance of the rains are suffering from a lack of moisture, raising concerns about low yields and possible crop failures in the upcoming months.

According to the minister, approximately 980,000 farmers who cultivate an estimated 1.8 million hectares of land are at risk of losing their lives, investments, and earnings, which might have repercussions for the nation’s food supply and agricultural value chain.

According to him, the anticipated crop failures would cause a severe scarcity of grain and would even cause a national food crisis.

“The Ministry will write off over 90 per cent of total expected production which will occasion an investment loss of GHC7.4 billion for farmers and corresponding revenue loss of GHC22 billion of the affected areas, representing 10% of agricultural GDP of GHC220 billion annually.”

He said that 928, 528 farmers will receive financial transfers, with each registered farmer anticipated to get GHc1000 per hectare as a buffer.

According to him, the drought conditions had a significant impact on livelihoods and food security, with anticipated repercussions for the food supply.

Sixty-two percent of the nation’s grain comes from the eight affected regions.

Source: Ghanatodayonline.com