Food glut hits Ghana

DW (English)

Farmers blame cheap imports for flooding the market, while government efforts to intervene with a 200-million-cedi fund fall short of the 500 million cedis they say is needed.

Transcript

00:00Farmer Smiley Sahaku is harvesting his two-acre rice field at Sakpalago near Tamale.

00:06He should be celebrating a good harvest, but instead he is worried.

00:12A bag of rice is sold at 200 cities. For example, if I invested 1,000 cities in an acre

00:20and I can't even sell two bucks to get my capital back, that alone is a problem for farmers.

00:26If you also factor tractor services and chemicals, we'll see that all of that is affecting us.

00:36The glut has hit hard. More than 1.2 million tons of grains remain unsold nationwide,

00:43according to Ghana's Chamber of Agribusiness. In Tamale's green market, aggregators are also

00:49struggling. We had lost all those goose packed at this side. That's last year's goose. No one is buying.

00:56We even have this thing. We had lost in it. We bought some 1,500, 1,000 cities. But for now,

01:05some are buying a bag of 500, 400 and those things. So we are facing a lot.

01:10Most of salmer's grains are procured on credit. Without a guaranteed market, a business hangs in

01:17the balance. It discouraged me a lot. It discouraged me a lot. Because if I sit down and do the amount

01:23of calculations that went off, I'm not finding it easy. The glut has pushed farmers to protest.

01:32On the street of Tamale, they marched with placards calling for reforms, including a ban on grain imports.

01:39The ban on export of local grains, including soya, has aggravated the situation. Across these crops,

01:49two things are evidence. One, farmers are suffering. Two, current systems are failing as farmers.

01:58Cheap imported rice continues to flood markets. This shop in Tamale sells rice from India.

02:04Authorities say imports are necessary because local production cannot meet national demand.

02:11The government has announced a fund of 200 million cities, that's over 18 million dollars,

02:17to buy surplus grains. But the agriculture ministry admits more than double that amount is needed.

02:24Aspects like Mashoud Mustafa believe the solution lies in creating reliable market access

02:29for farmers.

02:30In other places where agriculture is taking seriously, every farmer knows the buyers.

02:38So a farmer is not worried about storing or selling. No. There is a pro-arranged market for the

02:45farmer. So if we are able to do that also for our farmers, I think it will help a lot. We will not

02:50experience these things. Because the glut is just for a short period. Just give it a month or two and

02:56you go to the market. You may not find maize a grain to buy. For farmers like Sumayla, the green glut is

03:03more than a market challenge. It is a fight for survival. As cheap imports dominates shelves and

03:10government intervention falls short, the future of Ghanese grains producers hangs in the balance.

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