What may have seemed like a laudable initiative to the Agriculture Minister, Owusu Afriyie-Akoto, is currently facing severe public backlash.
On Friday, November 10, 2022, the Agric Ministry began selling food commodities at a subsidised price at their Accra office.
This initiative, dubbed “Planting for Food and Jobs Market,” provided a platform for rural farmers to trade directly with urban consumers.
The programme was successfully rolled out on Friday and is expected to continue in subsequent days. However, barely 24 hours after the initiative was launched, there have been various concerns raised.
Key among the concerns are claims that it is unsustainable. The General Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU)is the first to raise fed flags over the initiative.
In an interview with the media, the General Secretary of GAWU, Edward Kareweh, noted that it was a bad idea to roll out the initiative without carefully evaluating the forces driving up the prices of foodstuffs in the various markets.
He added that the initiative is just a knee-jerk reaction and its sustainability is highly doubtful because the entire procedure surrounding it is shrouded in secrecy.
“What is their budget for this exercise? We are asking this because, at the beginning of the year, the Ministry indicated to all of us that they were reducing their support to farmers to produce. The subsidy on fertilizer and subsidised seed which was 36% in 2021 has been reduced to 15%. The volume of fertilizer that was subsidised last year has been cut down to only a quarter.”
“The quality of fertilizer that gets to the farmers is not the same as what they claim they subsidized. There are real challenges facing agricultural production in this country. The other part has to do with post-harvest losses, the Ministry has to work to ensure we minimise post-harvest losses. Records have that 60 percent of yam produced never reaches the table of the consumer,” he added.
Secondly, an agribusiness expert, Gideon Aboagye, has also raised doubts about the sustainability of the initiative.
“It is a laudable idea… It doesn’t look like something that is sustainable. When you have good rains, you have excess production in terms of crops that really don’t use fertilisers. So you have a situation where you have a lot of plantains, cassava, and yam.”
“So you ask yourself in times that rains are not good, what happens? I think we should have a broader discussion on this matter and see how best we could set up an approach which works best for everybody,” the agribusiness expert told the media.
The latest to add its voice to the conversation is the Ghana Union of Traders Association, which fears the Agriculture Ministry, by this move, is likely to incite the public against traders.
He also contended that traders face numerous challenges and bear huge costs to transport goods to sell, and all these are factored into their pricing. However, the ministry is only subsiding prices, which puts them in a favourable spot in the eyes of consumers.
“What they are doing and the narrative that goes with it suggests that they are inciting the public against us, that we are profiteering, but that is not the case. Why are they not adding products like tomatoes that will go to waste? Because when you buy these goods, and it goes to waste, you have to also calculate and add them to your account,” Dr Obeng said.
He added that “they (Agric Ministry) will do everything to convince authorities that it can work, but you are not adding profit to what you are doing. You have all the logistics to procure the goods at a subsidized rate, and then you are trying to compare your pricing with the trader who has challenges?”
He noted that the way forward is not the path the Ministry is towing, but to add value to the products.
Source: The Independent Ghana