The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) has admitted its failure to anticipate the full scale of the severe drought devastating northern Ghana.
The ongoing crisis has hit farms across eight regions, with farmers now pleading for immediate government action as over a month and a half of relentless dry conditions have left their crops in ruin.
Tanko Bagbara, MoFA’s Head of Public Relations, revealed that despite ongoing cooperation with the Ghana Meteorological Agency, the ministry did not foresee the drought reaching its current disastrous proportions.
“The Ministry [of Food and Agriculture] over the period has worked closely with the meteorological station and we do heed their advice, but we did not foresee this and I do not want to blame anybody because all I know is that rain-feed agriculture is something you cannot predict naturally to the latter,” Mr. Bagbara told Bernard Avle.
As the Ministry compiles data on affected farmers, including those in the Upper East and Northern regions, concerns mount over the impact on national food security.
“Certainly, it is going to affect food security because a lot of farms have been lost completely and even if it rains today, there is no way we can recover those farms,” Mr. Bagbara added.
The government is expected to announce interventions soon, but the urgency of the situation raises questions about the effectiveness of the response and the future of the region’s agricultural viability.
