No food shortage despite severe drought in Northern Ghana – Agric Minister

The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Bryan Acheampong has assured that Ghana will not face a food shortage despite the severe drought affecting the Northern parts of the country.

The drought has led to stunted crop growth and concerns among farmers about potential food insecurity.

However, Mr Acheampong in an interview dismissed these concerns, assuring the public that the situation would not escalate into a food shortage crisis.

“I don’t think there will be a 1982 [1983] event, I don’t think that there will be famine, I don’t think that there will be food shortages, none of that. I think maybe at the time that it happened, we didn’t have the predictive tools or the intelligence to be able to deal with the situation.

“Some of which at the time were compounded by drought and fires which ravaged almost the whole country. We don’t have that situation on our hands now and we’re not going to get there” he noted in the interview.

Mr Acheampong highlighted that the government has already put measures in place to mitigate any potential food scarcity.

According to him, any impact from the current drought on food markets will likely be felt towards the end of September and October.

He emphasized that the government is taking proactive steps to manage the situation.

“All the things that we are talking about, except for the damage to the crops that has happened now, in terms of the impact on the markets, will be more at the end of September and October, and we are putting in steps now to deal with it,” he assured on Channel One TV.

The minister also noted that farmers still have reserves of grains to sustain them, stressing the importance of having a robust support system to address any food-related challenge that may arise.

“By now, even if the crops were doing well, they wouldn’t have harvested it. So, with all the stock of grains the farmers were living on, they still had something to live on until the next harvest in September.

“And so we are saying that we need to have all the systems and support in place in the country by the 20th to the end of September, to take us through. So that is what we’re planning against,” he explained.

He ended the discussion by reaffirming that Ghana will not experience what happened from 1982 to 1983 when the nation suffered severe famine due to drought and widespread bushfires that devastated the country’s food production.

Currently, Ghana has banned the export of grains to neighbouring countries to ensure that there is enough food for Ghanaians.