Yesterday, The Chronicle carried a publication about the Regional Minister for Ahafo, Mr George Boakye, challenging the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) about a figure it put out to describe food inflation in the region.
According to the GSS food price inflation in the region, described as the food basket of the country, is15.4%.
But Mr. Boakye strongly opposed the figure arguing that, there is an abundance of food in the Ahafo region. He, however, indicated that one of the major reasons hampering the mobility of these abundant foodstuffs from the farm gates to the markets is buyer scarcity.
The minister noted that this challenge has caused lots of the foodstuffs to get rotten at the farm gates.
The Chronicle finds this revelation very worrying because since the beginning of the year, the issue of food scarcity has featured prominently in discussions in the media space.
Food shortages caused some schools in the country to threaten to shut down, while some students also stayed away from school even though they had exams to write.
On July 20, reports had it that students from the Kumasi Senior High Technical School, numbering over three hundred did not report to school after the Eid-break due to food shortage.
The Eastern Region Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) on July 14, 2022 also issued a press release stating that it was considering the closure of schools in the region because of the shortage of food items.
In the statement, the association said there had been food shortages for the past two years, a situation that had affected the weight of food items supplied them.
CHASS, therefore, recommended to parents to take their wards back home and wait for the situation to normalise. We find it difficult to comprehend why foodstuffs will be left to rot elsewhere, whiles schools threaten to shut down due to shortages and scarcity.
Currently, most Ghanaians are complaining about the rising increment in prices of foodstuffs on the market.
Why are the prices of food items increasing on daily basis at the markets due to scarcity of food items, when the situation on the ground is that these food items are getting rotten at the farm gates. The irony of the situation is indeed disgusting.
The Chronicle is charging government to take the Ahafo regional Minister’s revelations serious and work to solve the problem. The Minister in his remark said the reason for the buyer scarcity was due to poor road network. We would want government to pay attention to the poor nature of roads in the Ahafo region and other areas which serve as food baskets for the country.
While at it, government should also take steps to develop a system where food items produced in these villages can be bought, stored and released onto the market anytime scarcity sets in. If we will not believe the story of how Joseph in the bible saved Egyptians from famine through this method, we should at least take a cue from ant which gather and store food for the lean season.
A word to the wise is enough!
