The year 2014 is here and the question is what has Ghana really achieved last year in terms of concerns, problems and opportunities and what is there to watch out for in 2014?

Silence is still golden

When Mr. Kwasi Ahwoi was appointed to head the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) in 2009 touted the new MOFA website and the importance of informing the public about policies, strategies and achievements.

In 2013 when FSG (Food Security Ghana) reported on the extremely high food prices in Ghana based on MOFA figures, all reporting stopped.

Anyone wanting information about statistics in Ghana will find that the “Facts & Figures of Agriculture” in Ghana, downloadable from the MOFA website, dates back to 2010!

It is a disgrace and FSG believe we can expect nothing better in 2014 because the people in charge of food security are too afraid to account to the people of Ghana.

Shame on you President John Dramani Mahama. Shame on your Executive. Shame on the Parliament of Ghana. You are deceiving the people of Ghana and letting them down.

Underinvestment continues

It is common knowledge that Ghana is a signatory to the CAADP (Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme) agreement to spend at least 10% of the national budget on agriculture and agricultural research.

In 2013 the Government of Ghana (GoG) was exposed as having budgeted less than 2% of national expenditure towards agriculture and agricultural research, and the same is true for the 2014 budget.

Shame on you President John Dramani Mahama. Shame on your Executive. Shame on the Parliament of Ghana. You are deceiving the people of Ghana and letting them down.

Smallholder farmers still ignored

The issue of massive shortage of extension services to support smallholder farmers to improve farming methods and with that their ability to earn more and produce more towards national food security is well known and well documented.

The 2014 budget shows nothing to improve this situation.

Shame on you President John Dramani Mahama. Shame on your Executive. Shame on the Parliament of Ghana. You are deceiving the people of Ghana and letting them down.

Poor performance of the sector to continue

From a healthy growth rate in the agricultural sector of 7.4% in 2008 Mr. Kwasi Ahwoi managed to mismanage the sector to a growth rate of only 1.3% in 2012. The GoG now places a provisional growth rate of 3.4% for 2013 and 4.3% for 2014 on the sector - well below the planned or promised growth rate of 6%.

Given the budget allocations for agriculture and agricultural research and the laissez faire attitude of the current food and agricultural Minister, it is highly unlikely that these growth rates will be achieved.

Shame on you President John Dramani Mahama. Shame on your Executive. Shame on the Parliament of Ghana. You are deceiving the people of Ghana and letting them down.

Ghanaians to further experience excessive prices for basic foodstuff

FSG has reported extensively in 2013 on the frightening increase in the cost of food. To date the GoG has not come forward to say what can be done to support the citizens and residents of Ghana in this respect.

Part of this problem can be found in the excessive high import duties and tariffs on basic foodstuffs compared to tariffs in other developing countries - an issue that is fully under control of the GoG. Yet nothing has been said or done about this.

Shame on you President John Dramani Mahama. Shame on your Executive. Shame on the Parliament of Ghana. You are deceiving the people of Ghana and letting them down.

Partial solutions that boils down to no solution to continue

The issue of rice in Ghana has been hotly debated since 2009. One aspect was the high import tariff differential between Ghana and the Ivory Coast that lead to massive smuggling of rice on Ghana’s Western borders.

It took the GoG five years to stop the importation of rice across the borders with Ivory Coast -  a half measure that will only see more sophisticated smuggling of rice due to the fact that the incentive for smuggling has not been removed.

Shame on you President John Dramani Mahama. Shame on your Executive. Shame on the Parliament of Ghana. You are deceiving the people of Ghana and letting them down.

The above are but some of the issues that have been plaguing food security in Ghana, and the prognosis is that 2014 will see no real improvement.

While we wish all Ghanaians a better 2014, we wish President John Dramani Mahama, his Executive and the Parliament of Ghana a wake-up call. You were elected by the people of Ghana and Ghana is not yours to mess with. Please wake up and become serious about food security in Ghana.