The Ministry of Food and Agriculture has attributed the delay in supply of food items to Senior High Schools to the “bad timing” of reopening of schools.

According to Asante Krobia, Technical Advisor to the Minister, there was a delay in distributing food items due to the uncertainty caused by covid-19 in reopening schools as most of the items are perishable and could not be stored for long.

Mr. Krobia acknowledged the concerns raised by the Coalition of Concerned Teachers Ghana, Ghana National Association of Teachers and Conference Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools, saying, they were genuine.

However, he holds the view that there is food in abundance, hence there is no cause for worry.

“The concern raised by the three teacher unions about supply of food to the schools is quite genuine but I’ll say it’s not a problem. It’s not a problem on the point that, because of the covid-19 situation, a lot of things have been disrupted. Not that there is no food in the country; the government’s flagship programme - Planting for Food and Jobs- has brought lots of food in the system but only that the timing of opening of schools was not so certain.”

“When we look at arrangements that were made to reopen schools and the continuous shift in effecting it caused the delay. Food items are perishable and you can’t store them with uncertainty. There should be proper planning and provision of quality food for the students. So that is what caused undersupply of food items when schools first reopened,” he said.  

Meanwhile, the Chief Executive of the National Food Buffer Stock Company, Hanan Abdul Wahab said his outfit was fully aware of the situation even before the three teacher associations released a press statement.

He further hinted that preparations are underway to solve the issue.

“We have started working long before the press release. We spoke to the teachers unions, gave them our plans, what we have done and what we’re doing to address the issue once and for all,” he said.

According to him, previous experiences have fully equipped them to deal with the situation.

“So for us in September 2017, during the first year of the free education program, we had some challenges, similar to what we’re experiencing now. Now the major concern is covid-19, we’re not in normal times. Buffer stock is not only supplying farm produce, we supply other food items that are imported that mostly depends on the world market.”

“Production is not done here, productions are done in other European countries and South American countries; so that has really affected buying and even transportation of them overseas has been very difficult. But thank God, we have been able to use our experience of what we experienced in 2017 to deal with the situation,” he revealed.