Some civil society groups have lamented the lack of investment in the agriculture sector, the practical near collapse in key crops like rice, and delays in implementation of World Bank projects.
They expressed their frustrations at a civil society engagement on the agricultural sector.
It was jointly organised by the Economic Governance Platform (EGP), the Peasant Farmer Association of Ghana (PFAG) and the World Bank.
Senior Agriculture Economist at the World Bank, Dr Ashwini Rekha Sebastian, explained that while critical agricultural investment aimed at boosting productivity of key crops, building the off farm value chains, supporting agribusinesses and farmers are delayed, the World Bank was working with Ministry of
Finance to unblock the delays.
Investments worth $75 million in irrigation rehabilitation is included, despite funding and technical designs in place.
Dr Ashwini Rekha Sebastian, a Senior Agricultural Economist, World Bank
Dr Sebastian disclosed these at the CSO dialogue on agriculture and food security in Accra last Tuesday.
Calls for urgent action
Dr Sebastian outlined several other ongoing and planned World Bank-supported programmes, including on tree crop diversification, and feeder road initiatives, aimed at improving access to markets.
She emphasised the need for stronger coordination across institutions and quicker decision-making to unlock stalled investments.
Matching grant stuck
The Senior Agricultural Economist added that proposed policy measures, such as a rice quota system, were still under discussion and required further stakeholder engagement and government approval before implementation.
While acknowledging the government’s commitment to the sector, she pointed to prevailing macro fiscal challenges as affecting the pace of approvals and execution.
“Delays of course impact how fast farmers and other value chain actors livelihoods can be impacted, such as under the West Africa Food Systems Resilience Programme (FSRP),” she said.
Heavy import bill concerning
Dr Sebastian noted that delays in implementing these projects were slowing efforts to boost local food production, as Ghana continued to rely heavily on imports.
According to her, the country spent nearly $2 billion annually on food imports, including about $700 million on rice, and significant imports of poultry and tomatoes.
She stressed that while interventions existed, slow execution continued to undermine efforts to reduce the import bill.
Policy and impact gap
Citing a gap between policy and impact, participants in the dialogue questioned why the impact of ongoing agricultural programmes was not widely visible, despite multiple investments and initiatives.
In response, Dr Sebastian admitted that limited communication around ongoing projects had contributed to this perception, noting that many interventions on the ground were not widely publicised.
FSRP driving crop, poultry development
Under the World Bank-funded FSRP, Dr Sebastian stated that are plans and potential for major progress in the production and marketing of rice, maize, poultry, soya and tomatoes in Ghana.
She explained that the programme formed part of broader efforts to strengthen Ghana’s food systems, improve resilience and reduce dependence on imports.
Dr Sebastian further noted that the planned interventions under these initiatives covered nearly 10,000 hectares of farmland and included irrigation rehabilitation, climate-smart agriculture and support for rice production.
She noted that technical designs for several irrigation schemes and inland valley projects, covering about 3,200 hectares, had already been completed and were awaiting rollout once approvals were secured.
The Senior Agricultural Economist added that under the FSRP, significant investments were being made in water conservation and irrigation to support large-scale production.
She said the programme included plans to rehabilitate four major irrigation schemes and develop 11 inland valleys, covering thousands of hectares.
“The irrigation schemes include the Vea Irrigation Scheme to support dry-season farming for rice, tomatoes, and peppers, covering 880 hectares using gravity systems, the Tanoso Irrigation Scheme with 104 hectares under pumping, the Kpong Irrigation Scheme with about 4,040 hectares using both gravity and pumping systems and the Weta Irrigation Scheme, which spans 1,000 hectares,” she said.
Other speakers
PFAG also called for an emergency response plan to prevent a possible tomato shortage amid ongoing talks with Burkina Faso over a temporary export ban.
In a presentation, the President of the association, Wepia Addo Awal Adugwala, warned that failed negotiations could lead to price hikes, supply gaps and increased pressure on local farmers, hence the government needed to act quickly by boosting irrigation, supporting more producers and improving storage and market systems.
The Coordinator of the EGP, Abdulkarim Mohammed, also raised concerns over the limited focus on agriculture under Ghana’s programmewith the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
He pointed out that the sector could play a key role in economic recovery and should be prioritised by the government and development partners.
Source:
www.graphic.com.gh