The General Secretary of the Ghana Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU), Edward Kareweh has predicted a possible food shortage to hit Ghana by 2023 when the Government does not double its steps in producing more food.
He disclosed that government has not rolled out enough policies to ensure an increase in food production which will translate into food security in the coming years.
Communicating the plight of farmers, Mr. Kareweh revealed that farmers were overburdened during the current planting season as accessing and purchasing fertilizers were done by themselves for the season, one which is unusual.
He, however, stated that this phenomenon leads to low agricultural output because the total cost of production has increased.
He further added, “Farmers will not be able to apply for the right amount of fertilizers to their crops due to the shortage of fertlizers.”
“The current policy which was implemented before the current planting season was that they are reducing fertilizer subsidy to 15 percent. That alone means that farmers will have to cough more money to be able to buy fertilizer,” he said.
He pointed out saying, “This already points to low output because farmers will have to cut down their acreage for farming because the total cost of production has gone up. This also means that farmers will not be able to apply fertilizer to the quantity that they ought to, and that will also mean that the yield per acre will fall.”
He further added, “All this means is that there will be a low output of agriculture at the end of 2022. The implication of it is that come next year, the food situation will be more serious than it is today.”
Comments are closed.