The General Secretary of the Agricultural Workers Union, Edward Kareweh, says the country is likely to suffer a challenging food situation this year.
He said it is unfortunate that Ghana, which is a food-insecure country, is not giving agriculture the needed attention.
Mr. Kareweh said that currently the country is in its needed season, and high prices are to be expected.
However, he said the situation has worsened due to the depreciation of the cedi, which is making it difficult to rely on imports to improve the situation.
According to him, “We’ll have a very bad food situation this year, but the fact remains that Ghana is a food insecure country. We also have to acknowledge that agriculture, even though it is touted as the mainstay of the economy, has not been given the needed attention that it should be.
Agriculture is seriously hit in this country by the actions and inactions of the government and also by the policies that we have in the country.”
Touching on GAWU‘s earlier projections that things will stabilize by June this year, Mr. Kawerh said the projection needs to be reviewed given the current development in the country.
” Presently, agriculture production is hurt by galamsey, it is no unusual that pieces of food have seen an increase because this is a new season. Season in which many crops have not yet been harvested.
I only expect that things will be better, and we need to be worried about that projection because it was based on the fact that between June and August will be the harvesting season. And whenever we are harvesting, we have enough food; therefore, food prices come down.