Dr. Owusu Afriyie-Akoto
The Food and Agriculture Minister-designate, Dr. Owusu Afriyie-Akoto, says Ghana has become a major breadbasket for the West Africa sub-region after the “Planting for Food and Jobs” flagship programme of the Akufo-Addo-led administration led to the significant growth of the agriculture sector.
According to him, Ghana exported 19 different food items in 2019 alone with 150,000 metric tonnes of them bringing in $90 million foreign exchange, noting that this was besides informal trading of foodstuffs between Ghana and its neighbouring countries, including Burkina Faso, Mali and Nigeria.
Appearing before the Appointments Committee of Parliament last Friday, Dr. Afriyie-Akoto noted that some people travelled all the way from Kano State in Nigeria to Ghana “to buy our foodstuffs.”
“We also exported plantains from Agogo and so on into Burkina Faso where traders had their own area for Agogo plantain (sic) and they were making brisk business,” he said.
“Mr. Chairman, this is something which the whole of West Africa and the international community have come to accept as one of our achievements. In 2019, we exported 19 different food items, 150,000 metric tonnes of them worth about $90 million.
“If you go through the books of the Ministry of Finance you won’t find it because the trade is very informal. People bring CFA into this country and change it, and they buy these things and take them away.
“And instead of our customs checking and making sure that we receive whatever is required of us in the foreign exchange return and so on, that doesn’t happen. I called it ECOWAS trade and we have become a major breadbasket of West Africa,” the nominee told the Members of Parliament (MPs).
Dr. Afriyie-Akoto disclosed that food supply in the country had grown significantly under his stewardship as Food and Agriculture Minister for the last four years, intimating that growth of the agriculture sector contributed to 19% of the nation’s GDP.
“It’s so obvious. If you go to our markets, even in the midst of our dry season, from the north to the east, to the west you will see along the high roads and even the minor roads a lot of food being sold,” he said and added that this had accounted for the drop of prices of food items.
Touting the achievement of the government in the sector, the former MP for Kwadaso stated that before the assumption of the Akufo-Addo administration the highest amount of maize production in the country was 1.8 million metric tonnes.
Through the policy and other government interventions, maize production was increased to two million metric tonnes by the end of 2017, 2.3 million in 2018 and 2.9 million in 2020.
If not for the Covid-19 pandemic and massive drought in the southern part of the country, the minister-designate said the country could have hit a 3.1 million production mark projected for last year.
He also stated that significant increases in the production of other food commodities, including rice, were recorded, pointing out that “in 2017, the total milled rice in Ghana was 433,000 metric tonnes but in 2020 it had gone up to a million metric tonnes.”
“I am very confident and there are a lot of people who will bear witness to the fact that supply of food in Ghana has improved considerably under my watch,” he submitted.