The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) has conceded that it underestimated the severity of the devastating drought currently gripping northern Ghana, admitting that the situation has caught them off guard.

Tanko Bagbara, Head of Public Relations at MoFA, disclosed that the ministry has been in close collaboration with the Ghana Meteorological Agency to track the unusual and unprecedented severity of the situation.

“The Ministry over the period has worked closely with the meteorological station and we do heed their advice, but we did not foresee this and I do not want to blame anybody because all I know is that rain-feed agriculture is something you cannot predict naturally to the latter”.
Tanko Bagbara, Head of Public Relations at MoFA

According to Bagbara, the Ministry is intensifying its efforts to swiftly resolve the issue and deliver urgent support to farmers impacted by the drought.

He further stated that the Ministry is in the process of gathering and verifying the names of affected farmers, in preparation for the government’s forthcoming assistance package.

According to the MoFA PRO, the Ministry is still gathering data on the situation, which has already shown that eight regions are affected, including the recently impacted Upper East and Northern regions.

He revealed that the affected regions have been grappling with drought conditions for the past six weeks, exacerbating the situation.

“We all heard the President give a hint that the government will soon announce some interventions to mitigate the drought situation”. – Tanko Bagbara

Bagbara further conceded that the situation will undoubtedly have a devastating impact on food security, as numerous farms have been completely decimated, resulting in significant crop losses.

He emphasized that even if rainfall were to occur today, it would be too late for farmers to salvage their lost crops, as the damage has already been done.

He assured that the government will soon roll out a package of interventions to mitigate the effects of the drought and support affected farmers.

GIDA Suggests Irrigation To Tackle Northern Drought

Meanwhile, the Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA) has revealed that the current cost of developing an irrigation scheme for a single hectare of farmland stands at approximately $40,000.

According to Mr. Richard Oppong-Boateng, Acting CEO of GIDA, investing in the rigorous development of irrigation infrastructure is a superior approach to mitigating the devastating impact of drought in northern Ghana.

Mr. Oppong-Boateng noted that the existing irrigated land area is grossly insufficient, covering only a tiny fraction of the total 1.9 million hectares of land identified as suitable for irrigation.

He revealed that GIDA is actively pursuing additional initiatives aimed at expanding Ghana’s irrigable land area, as part of its efforts to enhance the country’s agricultural productivity and resilience.

“Per the decree, we are supposed to identify water resources in the country that are suitable for irrigation and we have done close to 19,000 hectares of irrigable land. We have 1.9 million hectares but if you add the private irrigation farms, now, we have done about 220,000 hectares which is a little of 12 percent of our potential of 1.9 million hectares.
Mr. Richard Oppong-Boateng

The GIDA CEO emphasized that the authority has been scaling up its efforts since last year, highlighting the ongoing rehabilitation of existing irrigation schemes as a key priority.

He highlighted that the authority is currently rehabilitating approximately 5,000 hectares of irrigation schemes, and emphasized that maintaining this pace will enable GIDA to scale up to around 700,000 hectares within the next 5 to 10 years.

In the interim, the ongoing drought has brought farming activities to a standstill in the five northern regions, where farmers are reeling from the consequences of a relentless dry period spanning more than two months without any significant rainfall.