By Godwill Arthur-Mensah
Accra, Aug. 26, GNA- The Government has placed a temporary ban on the export of grains with immediate effect to ensure the availability of food produced on the domestic market.
The decision is necessitated by threats of shortage of maize, rice, millet and sorghum from eight regions due to erratic rainfall patterns from June to August, this year.
The Government has, therefore, decided to source $500 million from the Contingency Fund, the World Bank and other donor partners to cushion the affected farmers.
The country would also tap into the ECOWAS Grain Reserve to bring in 300,000 metric tonnes (MT) of maize, 150,000 MT of rice and 26,000 MT of poultry to feed the poultry industry.
Dr Bryan Acheampong, the Minister of Food and Agriculture, announced this during the Minister’s news briefing in Accra on Monday on measures to mitigate the current dry spell in the eight regions.
The eight regions experiencing dry spells or erratic rainfall patterns are Northern, Upper East, North East, Savannah, Upper West, Bono, Bono East and Oti.
“The dry spell led to the disruption of crop production. The lack of rain over the past two months has severely impacted the planting season in many of the farming areas.
“Some notably affected communities in the Upper East Region are Gabuliga, Teshie, Boya and Ankpaliga,” he stated.
The Minister said crops sown in anticipation of the rains had been left struggling without sufficient moisture, with fears of low yields and potential crop failures in the coming months.
The Minister said livelihoods, investments and incomes of over 980,000 farmers cultivating an estimated 1.8 million hectares were at risk and could have ripple effects on agricultural value chain and food supply across the country.
The Minister said the projected crop failures would significantly result in a shortfall of grain supply and could lead to nationwide food shortage.
“The Ministry will write off over 90 per cent of total expected production which will occasion an investment loss of GHc7.4 billion for farmers and corresponding revenue loss of GHc22 billion of the affected areas, representing 10 per cent of agricultural GDP of GHC220 billion annually.”
He said cash transfers would be made to 928, 528 farmers with each registered farmer expected to receive GHc1000 per hectare to cushion them.
The drought conditions had far-reaching implications for food security and livelihoods with expected consequences on food supply, he said.
The eight affected regions supply 62 per cent of the country’s grains.
GNA