The government has placed a temporary ban on the export of grains including rice, maize, and soyabean from the country with immediate effect.
This is to forestall potential food crisis which had become imminent as a result of the prolonged dry spells experienced in about eight regions in the country.
Addressing the media in Accra yesterday, the Minister of Agriculture, Dr Bryan Acheampong, said the decision to place temporary ban on the export of grains formed part of the raft of measures employed by the government to ensure the country did not run into food crisis.
The Minister said apart from the ban on export, to form part of a raft of measures adopted to ensure food sufficiency and forestall any form of grain shortages in the country following long periods of dry spells in most part of the country, the government would tap into the ECOWAS grain reserve as well as partner with the private sector to bring in more grains to bridge the gap estimated within the potential shortfall.
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"Government will bring in up to 300,000 metric tonnes of maize and 150,000 metric tonnes of rice to provide food support to the vulnerable farmers who have lost their crops and for the market," he stressed.
In addition, he said the government would bring in a total volume of 26,000 metric tonnes of poultry feed to directly support the poultry industry.
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Apart from these measures, the Minister said steps had been taken to ameliorate the impact of the situation on farmers.
These steps he said included cash transfers to the 435.872 farmers who had been identified to have been affected by the situation out of the 928,523 farmers who were at risk of losing their crops.
Dr Acheampong said these measures had become necessary due to the negative impact of the prolonged dry spells the country was facing.
He said it was estimated that farmers in the areas affected by the near drought situation had lost their investment running into approximately GH¢3.5billion as well as potential revenue loss of GH¢10.4billion.
"With the level of damage experienced and the estimates coming in the ministry believes it will have to write off over 90 per cent of total expected production which will occasion an investment loss of GH¢7.4billion for farmers and a revenue loss of GH¢22billion for all the affected areas," he said.
In addition to this, the Minister said this would have a 10 per cent decline in agriculture Gross Domestic Product (GDP) due to production losses.
The Minister of Finance on his part said they were monitoring the situation and all the necessary measures would be put in place to ensure that the economic gains were not eroded.
He said the situation was a crisis that would require the collective effort and contribution of all Ghanaians to bring under control, stressing that the situation must not be politicised.
