Ministry Of Food And Agriculture Begins Foodstuffs Sale
The Ministry of Food and Agriculture will from today, November 11 begin selling foodstuffs at its premises in Accra.
Earlier this month, the sector Minister, Owusu Afriyie Akoto announced this plan as a means of mitigating the effects of food inflation in the regional capital during a stakeholder meeting with farmers in Sefwi Wiawso in the Western North Region.
He said foodstuffs would be transported from the rural areas- where he said foodstuffs sell at cheaper prices- to Accra for sale.
“We are going to link up with the farm gate so that we make all the arrangements to ensure that we put up kiosks on our compounds at the ministry, specifically for food from here [Sefwi Wiawso] and we are going to give it a lot of publicity,” the minister said when food inflation was 37.8%.”
In a press statement, dated November 10, the Ministry announced it was demarcating a portion of its premises in Accra for the initiative.
The statement noted that it is meant to mitigate the impact of inflation on the income of Civil and Local Government Workers.
“As part of government measures to mitigate the impact of rising food prices on real incomes of Civil and Local Government Workers, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) has introduced a Pilot PFJ Market at the premises of the MoFA effective Friday, 11th November 2022.”
From this, it is unclear if the foodstuffs will be sold to persons who fall under that category of workers or to the general public.
But the initiative, from the time of its announcement, has received backlash from a section of Ghanaians who believe it is unreasonable and out of place.
A former Research Scientist with the Savannah Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Professor Roger Kanton, is quoted to have described it as “bizarre”.
“There is a whole organisation that is tasked to take off excess food from farmers and that is the buffer stock, my question is how well they have functioned. They keep saying that there is enough food, then they should deploy people from buffer stock, why is he using his scanty resources as the technical ministry to wade into an area that they don’t have the competence…I find it to be a little bit bizarre,” he said according to Citi news.
Food inflation currently stands at 43.7%. The Greater Accra Region has a food inflation rate of 42.8%-the eighth highest food inflation rate regionally.
Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini
