A former Research Scientist with the Savannah Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Professor Roger Kanton, has downplayed the feasibility of plans by the Ministry for Food and Agriculture to cart food products from the rural areas and sell at the premises of the Ministry in Accra.
The Minister for Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, earlier this week, reiterated the government’s intention to transport food from the rural areas to Accra in a bid to deal with rising food inflation.
We found the plan by the Minister very odd, even though, according to Dr Akoto, data gathered by the Ministry shows massive disparities between prices at the farm gates and urban centres due to costs within the value chain.
The Minister has stressed that prices in the urban areas, particularly Accra, are a far cry from what pertains in the production centres in the regions, and for that matter the government and the Ministry are arranging to transport food from the farm gates directly to Accra to provide food at reasonable prices.
The Chronicle finds the intention of the Minister as unproductive, because we will wake up one day to be told that the Ministry used huge sums of the taxpayers’ money for the exercise, which may not even meet its intended purposes.
It is against this background that The Chronicle sides with Professor Kanton, who described the move as bizarre, because the Minister is embarking on an initiative his Ministry does not have the competence and capacity to execute.
We have taken this position because it is not the mandate of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to go into haulage, marketing, and food distribution.
We challenge the Minister and his Ministry to show Ghanaians the capacity of the institution to move food from the rural areas to the urban centres.
If the Minister and his Ministry are not conversant and acquainted with the agricultural value chain, The Chronicle would like to join Professor Kanton to remind him that the agricultural value chain has a lot of actors or players, so they cannot leave their chain and act on somebody’s.
It is as simple as that!
Again, The Chronicle would like to remind the good people of Ghana that there is a whole organisation that is tasked to take off excess food from farmers, and that is the buffer stock, and the question is how well have they functioned?
We have been told over and over again that there is enough food, so where is the food and why can’t the Ministry of Agriculture deploy people from the buffer stock?
The Chronicle would further wish to find out why the Minister of Agriculture is bent on using his scanty resources as the technical ministry to wade into an area that they don’t have the competence?
We do not believe that the Ministry’s decision to transport food from the rural areas to Accra would deal with rising food inflation.
Our fear is that the move would rather end up enriching the pockets of some people who would be running around the country claiming they are solving the problems of the ordinary Ghanaian.
Let the Ministry of Agriculture focus on its main mandate, and if it thinks there is the need for urgent actions to be taken, we should all identify the appropriate body to tackle it.
We should not allow anyone or group of people to, once again, hide behind our predicament to fleece the state.
