The survey revealed that 53% of residents in Ghana that Gallup surveyed in 2009 and 2010 said there were times in the past 12 months when they did not have enough money to buy the food that they or their families needed. This is indicative of a food security threat according to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.
The definition of food security states that “Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.”
According to this definition food security have three components:
· Available,
· Affordable, and
· Safe and Nutritious.
Tracking of food security issues in Ghana and globally by FSG has revealed that there is some confusion by officials of the Ghana government, including the Minister Mr. Kwesi Ahwoi, about the real meaning of food security.
AVAILABILITY OF FOOD
In 2010 the smuggling of rice from the Ivory Coast to Ghana became a big issue. It is a known fact that Ghana currently only produces 30 percent or less of local demand. If there were no importation of rice it would have indicated serious food insecurity in that there would have been a shortage of 70 percent of demand.
During the debate on rice smuggling and the importation of rice various comments were made by MOFA officials ranging from telling importers to “pack their bags” to telling Ghanaian consumers to rather eat cassava if rice was too expensive showing serious insensitivity to Ghanaians.
Government’s official standpoint is basically that Ghana has the ability to be self-sufficient in the production of rice as it indeed was in the sixties. Various policy measures were announced with a promise that Ghana will be self-sufficient within 2 to 3 years.
Ghanaians will also remember that Mr. Kwesi Ahwoi made a public statement in September of 2009 that he will resign as Minister of Food and Agriculture if he fails to deliver on his set goals and targets in the next two years. One of those targets was to make Ghana self-sufficient in terms of rice production within two years, meaning that the Minister has approximately six months to deliver, or to resign.
The stark reality is that this unfulfilled promise by the Minister was never possible in such a short span of time. Everybody, even the importers of rice, fully agrees that a policy to bridge the rice supply-demand gap through local production is not only commendable, but indeed essential.
The local rice production industry in Ghana is however plagued with problems of poor quality, low yields, insufficient investment, late delivery of promised support by government, adverse weather conditions, failed irrigation systems and major market problems. Analysts agree that it is a steep hill to climb, and to become self-sufficient will require major efforts by government and patience – both of which seem to be lacking.
AFFORDABILITY OF FOOD
If the solution to become self-sufficient is a long-term issue, the short-term solution is to import rice at the lowest possible cost to consumers. Despite many requests by the industry and consumers the government has flatly refused to review its policy on import duties of rice and other basic foodstuff.
It will be remembered that the NPP government pro-actively scrapped a 20 percent import tariff on rice and other basic foodstuffs to help Ghanaians during the 2007 – 2008 food crisis. The NDC government in December 2009 in its budget speech reversed this policy when the Minister of Finance deceitfully told Ghanaians that the food crisis was over and that the step was necessary to protect the local industry.
Firstly, the food crisis was not over. In fact, one month before the budget statement the World Bank issued a warning stating “Food Crisis May Repeat, Warn Leaders in Global Hunger Fight.” Since then many warnings have been issued about the 2010 – 2011 food crisis that now turns out to be worse than the previous crisis.
Secondly, when a country can only produce 30 percent of its local demand, high import duties will never help to stimulate the growth of the local industry. Such policies are only effective when a country is already self-sufficient, such as India where an import duty of 70 percent is levied.
Ghanaians will find the reaction of its own government compared to that of India’s government very interesting when it comes to the issue of protecting its consumers.
In 2009 the India government realised that the importation of rice will become necessary due to adverse production circumstances in India. To protect its consumers against inflationary pressures of more expensive imported rice it dropped imprt duties from 70 percent to 0 percent.
In Ghana the import tariff was reintroduced taking the total cost of importation of a staple food to 37 percent compared to 12.5 percent in neighbouring Ivory Coast. In a single statement the government succeed to create a series of adverse effects for Ghana and Ghanaians.
First of all 70 percent of rice consumers in Ghana were “punished” because consecutive governments have allowed the huge supply-demand gap to develop.
Secondly the huge tariff differential between Ghana and the Ivory Coast led to unprecedented smuggling of rice from the Ivory Coast to Ghana. This issue was revealed in May 2009 and despite promises from the government to “investigate” it took the government more than 18 months to do anything about the situation.
The rice issue is used as an example of failed government policy to protect or support its citizens during a real and proven food crisis.
Economists and analysts all over the world have been advocating that while a country is moving from a state of dependency to a state of self-sufficiency – a long-term strategy – impediments such as high import duties should be removed.
In response to the 2007 – 2008 crisis an IPN study “Feed the World”, written by agricultural economist Douglas Southgate, shows that governments were the primary cause of the crisis. According to him Government policies have prolonged the crisis, particularly affecting the world’s poorest people.
Professor Southgate, of Ohio State University, said that governments’ responses – such as bans on food exports in emerging economies, coddling of biofuels development (the subject of investigation by FSG and topic of its next release) and needless restrictions on agricultural biotechnology – have made the food crisis worse. He added:
“Meddling by politicians makes food more expensive for millions of the world’s hungry. It is a wholly preventable tragedy. That is just unacceptable.”
Professor Southgate’s study also identifies numerous policy changes that would improve agricultural output and reduce the price of food for everyone. These, he said, include the scrapping of import and export restrictions on agricultural goods as well as inputs, such as fertiliser, pesticide and new crop varieties.
The government of Ghana refuses to accept the fact that we are in the middle of a serious food crisis that is in fact creating severe suffering of its citizens. Talking about long-term solutions without addressing short-term solutions such as scrapping import duties on a Ghanaian staple food is not only irresponsible, but indeed insensitive.
Ghana’s government, as many other governments, must take note that the people will demand accountability at some point in time. In the same vein Ghana’s Minister of Food and Agriculture will have to make good on his promise by September 2011.
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