Tackling food inflation: Stakeholders call for stronger collaboration

Players in the agriculture sector have called for a much stronger collaboration between the government and the private sector to address the challenges within the sector that serve as a source of livelihood for a lot of people.

In the face of rising food inflation, the players are of the view that greater collaboration would lead to food sufficiency, which would ultimately help bring down food inflation.

Speaking at the Graphic Business/Stanbic Bank Breakfast Meeting, the 2022 National Best Farmer, Nana Yaw Siriboe, said the government had no business venturing into agriculture production.

Rather, he said, the government should focus its attention on creating the enabling environment that would allow private sector entities to come into the sector.

The Breakfast Meeting, held under the theme: “Enhancing Agriculture Sufficiency to Tackle Food Inflation”, brought together policymakers, development partners, people in academia, farmers and other players in the agriculture value chain.

“The government has no business venturing into business activities. The government is rather supposed to create the enabling environment for the private sector to thrive,” he stated.

“A lot of policies have been implemented, but we haven’t been able to solve our problems and this will continue if the private sector doesn’t come in to augment the work that the government is doing.

“But the private sector can only come in when the environment is conducive enough for their investments,” he said.

Coordinated approach 

Nana Siriboe also called for a coordinated approach that would tackle challenges across the entire value chain.

“We should tackle agriculture extensively; we are doing it in piecemeal and one at a time. If we are tackling mechanisation or preparation, we are leaving out production, and if we are tackling production then we are leaving out post-production.

“But if we want to see results, then we should tackle it holistically and the government must lead it,” he said.

He said the second phase of the Planting for Food and Jobs programme was commendable because it tackles the challenges in the sector along the entire value chain.

He, therefore, urged the government to commit to the implementation of the programme.

“Agriculture is from the farm to the table and if we don’t start right, we won’t get it right,” he said.

Industrialisation  

Nana Siroboe, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Siroboe Farms, also stressed the need to focus on industrialisation in the sector. 

Emphasising the need to industrialise, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Incentive-Based Risk-Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (GIRSAL), Kwesi Korboe, said this could help control inflation in the country.

Highlighting the impact of food imports on the depreciation of the Ghana cedi, he called for the need to boost agricultural production to mitigate the effects of rapid food inflation, a trend exacerbated since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and compounded by global supply chain disruptions and the weakening of the cedi.

"Ghana and Nigeria have experienced depreciation of their currencies, and it is not surprising that food inflation is high because they are major importers of food. So, when food inflation goes up, should we be surprised?" he asked.

To tackle food inflation effectively, Mr Korboe said the country must enhance its agricultural productivity to remain competitive.

He urged policymakers to bridge the gap between themselves and farmers to boost grain production, advocating for a collaborative approach between smallholder and large-scale farmers.

"Policies are made by those who are not in the field. Those who are in the field have no way of influencing policy, so we come out with weak projects that are not able to help those in the field," he noted. This disconnect, he argued, results in ineffective initiatives that fail to support the agricultural sector adequately.