Minister for food and agriculture, Dr. Bryan Acheampong, has reiterated that the country is on track to achieve its objective of food self-sufficiency in ten food crops.
The ten food crops are onions, tomatoes, pepper, maize, soya, rice, sorghum, plantain, cassava and yam as well as poultry.
According to Dr. Acheampong, the government in the year 2023 met its target for the ten food crops except for poultry and added that the ministry is working assiduously to meet the target for the year 2024.
He further explained that if things go as planned, Ghana will become food self-sufficient by 2029.
“The strategy that we set out on planting for food and jobs, and the invitation that we gave to Ghanaians to follow us on the five-year journey to food resilience, we are on track,” he told Citi FM.
“We were able to meet our targets in 2023 on the ten crops, except for poultry, in 2024 we are bent on meeting those food targets and when we have done that and follow the trajectory, in five years, Ghana will be food sufficient in the ten crops.”
However, he assured that for onions, pepper and tomatoes, Ghana will no longer be imported in the next three years.
“The plan for onions, tomatoes and pepper is to get rid of that embarrassing tag we have on our head within two years. There’s no way we can get it done within a year, and definitely, we can’t get it done in ten months. So we have set that target for three years and if you look at the current onion prices, we are seeing it for the first time at GH₵17. 77 per kilogram in January and today, it’s GH₵16.75 per kilogram. It has dropped by a cedi per kilogram.
“So my point is, that the production that we catalyzed last year that we’re bearing the fruits this year, is not enough to get us where we want to get to but we have been able to demonstrate in 2023 that the strategy that we have embarked on will work and we are beginning to see slight drop in the prices of onions.
“In two and a half to three years, this country will wean itself off the importation of tomatoes, onions and pepper. That we are sure because that one is very embarrassing. Everything else we are saying five years, 2028, we should be able to get there but for onion and tomatoes, I can’t deal with it.”
