Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, has once again refuted suggestions that there is a food shortage in Ghana.
According to the minister, Ghana has become a net exporter of food under his watch, with the country now being able to export food to its neighbouring countries because of the massive investment the government has made in the agriculture sector.
He suggested that the Planting for Food and Jobs programme the government is implementing has been tremendously successful even though it faced some challenges.
“Ghana has become the bread basket of West Africa. We are exporting 19 food items to our neighbouring countries, as far as Mali, as far as Nigeria. We are exporting all the grains and fruits.
“In the five and a half years of my administration as minister for agriculture, it is only the last 6 months that we have banned food exports, which is only temporal. If we did not have food in Ghana, why would we ban (its) exportation? This is simple logic. It means that there is something here to go out that we are trying to stop from going,” the minister said in a TV3 interview monitored by wontumionline.com
Because of the consistent rise in the price of food items over the past few months and the shortage of food seen in senior high schools across the country, many Ghanaians have suggested that this is a shortage in Ghana which the agriculture ministry has consistently rejected.
Records from the Ghana Statistical Service indicate that the price of food increased on average by 26.6 percent as of the end of July 2022.