Building agricultural wealth, is it time to do more?

The potential for building a thriving agricultural sector in Ghana faces challenges due to some recent choices impacting the sector. Illegal small-scale mining is one such practice that adversely impacts cocoa production especially.

These poor choices are stifling growth in the sector, compounding the already dire production, storage and distribution systems, limited financing and weak technology that has constrained the sector’s growth.

This will be injurious to Ghana’s agricultural wealth and it might be time to change course. It is time to walk the words of Vitor Belfort’s ‘legacy is not what I did for myself. It’s what I am doing for the next generation.’

For more than a century, Ghana has recorded major gains in agriculture, the cocoa sub-sector singly, has contributed to building a formidable foreign exchange base with extended gains on an internationally vibrant chocolate and allied industry.

Cocoa is expected to contribute about 3.75 billion GHS (approximately 312.9 million U.S. dollars) of the country’s GDP by 2027. In the 2021/2022 crop season, about 689,000 metric tons of cocoa beans were produced in Ghana.

Non-traditional exports (NTE) like cashew, shea, pineapples, and rubber have progressively impacted foreign exchange earnings too. Ghana Export Promotion Authority reported NTE earnings for the period January to December 2021 contributed US$3.330 billion, reflecting an increase of about 17% over 2020 earnings of US$ 2.846 billion.

A steady upward trend in growth over the last five years (2017 to 2021), Ghana’s NTEs grew at an annual average rate of 7.07% and contributed 2.62% to the total national merchandise exports of Ghana in 2021.

NTEs percentage contribution to Total National exports in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 were 18%, 19%, 18%, 20% and 22.62% respectively and gains from NTE could further grow with additional capital unlocked for the sector.

Successive governments have played key roles in shaping long term achievements of agricultural ecosystems and incentivising players within the sector that lead to agribusinesses being birthed, nurtured, and grown to succeed. Decisions for the sector hinge on long term goals, rather than immediate gains, well applied policies, dedicated action, and sustained action across different governments.

The examples of thriving agribusiness in Malaysia and Brazil have demonstrated possibilities within agricultural value chains and food systems in transforming economies in a shift from being dependent markets to operating as large contributors in exports and value addition. These successful cases should inspire change in Ghana’s approach.

Accelerating development in infrastructure is a cardinal area of focus to boost the sector’s performance. Improved transport systems, roads, rail networks and ports that will enhance links between production areas, major trade corridors and markets are essential.

Easing access to agricultural lands, development of modernized irrigation systems and similar opportunities exist in developing diverse classes of storage facilities. Storage facilities that support both cold and dry postharvest management for longer shelf life of foods.

These should be underpinned by long term policies in public private partnerships. Research, education, skills development and technical training are crucial elements of success. Additionally, collaboration between industry and research could be further strengthened.

A modernized and sustainable approach for Ghana’s agricultural production system enabled by technology is the best path to viability, enhancing better access to finance and market opportunities. A technology driven production system at scale in which factors like irrigation, pests, and diseases are well controlled minimizes perceived and actual farm operational risks thereby incentivizing banks to lend to the sector.

The Government of Ghana has championed flagship programs in agriculture and celebrates deserving farmers each year although enormous potential remains untapped. It will be prudent for future government to sustain the actions and focus on agriculture to consolidate the gains and further grow the sector. Steps to further unlock investments in the sector will promote job creation and meaningful economic returns.

Critically delving into the building blocks for a transformed agricultural industrial revolution revolve around setting long term goals, bothering on exports and imports, and stimulating a robust raw material base to catalyze industrial value.

This will contribute to curbing the cyclical shortages in food supply and rising food inflation during the lean season driven by poor management of surpluses during the harvest season.

Proactively, policy actors, national and local governments interventions should be expediated in counteracting the negative impacts of poor decisions getting entrenched in the agriculture sector.