A former Research Scientist with the Savannah Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Professor Roger Kanton, has described the plans by the Ministry for Food and Agriculture to cart food products from rural areas and sell at the Ministry in Accra as “bizarre”
“There is a whole organisation that is tasked with taking excess food from farmers, and that is the buffer stock. My question is how well they have functioned. They keep saying that there is enough food, then they should deploy people from buffer stock, why is he using his scanty resources as the technical ministry to wade into an area that they don’t have the competence… I find it to be a little bizarre,” Professor Rogen Kanton said
The Minister for Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, on Wednesday, 2nd November 2022 announced that the government will directly engage in transporting foodstuffs from farming communities to sell at controlled prices at the premises of the Agric Ministry.
According to Dr. Akoto, data acquired by the Ministry reveals significant pricing differences between rural and urban locations due to expenditures incurred along the value chain.
But in an interview with Citinews, Professor Kanton downplayed the feasibility of the move by the ministry, adding that the agriculture minister is starting a project that his government lacks expertise and resources to complete.
“I want you to ask him, is that the mandate of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture? Is there now going to be a constitutional shift in its mandate to now go into haulage, marketing, and food distribution,” Professor Kanton asked.
He added, “does he have the capacity moving food from rural areas to urban centres, ask the Minister if he is conversant and acquainted with the agricultural value chain. The agricultural value chain has a lot of actors or players, so you cannot leave your chain and act on somebody’s chain.”
Source: The Independent Ghana