The Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana has hinted of a looming food shortage in the country in the not-too-distant future due to lack of access to fertilizer as the planting season commences.

As such, the Association advised Consumers who have the means of purchasing food produced in quantities to do so immediately to avoid being affected by the food shortage in the country in the coming months. The Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana encouraged consumers to purchase and store staple foods especially cereals.

The Head of Programmes and Advocacy for Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana, Dr. Charles Nyaaba, gave the advice in an interview on an Accra-based FM station on Monday, March 14, 2022 when speaking on the cost of living and the price hikes in the country, especially fuel prices. To avert this looming food shortage, Dr. Nyaaba urged the government to allocate more resources towards providing fertilizer subsidies to farmers.

“Those consumers who can buy and stock for 2023 and beyond should start doing so. I will advise them to buy things like maize, rice, millet; the prices are going to escalate because we are not getting fertilizer. Increase in fuel prices have increased the cost of tractor services, while prices of other inputs have gone up. Ghana should find a way to increase budget allocation to fertilizer subsidies. Things are hard now but if they can afford, they should buy and stock”.
Dr. Charles Nyaaba

In July last year, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture reviewed its subsidized fertilizers upwards due to the impacts of the COVID-19 which led to a rise in the general prices of goods, including fertilizers on the international market.

Recently, the ongoing Russia- Ukraine crises is expected to result in a further rise in the prices of fertilizer, especially as Russia remains a major supplier of fertilizer globally. Data from the FAO show that Ghana imported close to 40% of its fertilizer from Russia last year.

Lower rainfall to threaten food security this year

Meanwhile, the Ghana Meteorological Agency has warned that the country’s food security could be threatened, if this year’s rainy season falls below average.

According to the Agency, a-below average raining season for this year, would culminate into the country experiencing a continuous below average down pour without break, for three consecutive years.

Madam Francisca Martey, Director of Research and Applied Meteorology at the Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMet), disclosed this at this year’s Seasonal Forecast Presentation of GMet in Accra.

“Three years running means our buffers could be threatened”, she said, adding that there is the need for state authorities to seriously consider all other means of ensuring and securing food security, should this happen.

Madam Francisca Martey said for this year’s rainy season, ‘a late to normal onset’, ‘a mostly normal cessation’, with significant probabilities of slightly longer dry spells are expected.

Madam Martey said generally, normal rainfalls are expected between the months of March and June over most places south of the country.

She said some areas in the southeastern parts of the country would experience ‘below normal rainfall’ for both the March, April, May as well as the April, May, June seasons.