Dr.
Charles Nyaaba, a former Director of the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana, has accused the government of exaggerating the impact of the recent dry spell in northern Ghana This comes after the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Bryan Acheampong, revealed that 435,872 farmers in northern Ghana, covering an area of 871,745 hectares, have been severely impacted by a dry spell.
He added that farmers have lost an estimated investment of GH₵3.5 billion, leading to a potential revenue loss of GH₵10.4 billion.
The Minister added that the government will require about GH₵ 8 billion to avert a possible food crisis.
Speaking on The Big Issues on Channel One TV, Dr.
Nyaaba challenged the government's figures, stating that the situation on the ground is not as dire as the ministry claims. "It is a fact that the peasant farmers were the first to put it out there that there is a dry spell.
But the number of farms and the number of farmers that the ministry projected is far higher than the reality on the ground.
The situation is not that dire," he stated.
He further suggested that the government might be using the dry spell as an excuse for the potential failure of the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) 2.0 programme. "When this whole thing happened, what we have said within ourselves is that this is another opportunity for the ministry to get an excuse for the failure of the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) 2.0. "Honourable is aware [referece to the Deputy Minister of Agric], which part of northern Ghana do we plant in September?
So, if there is an issue and you say you want to provide farmers with seeds and finance to plant in September, where is the data that they gather on the number of farms that are destroyed? "What is the impact so far on the projected PFJ 2.0 that within one month, we are projecting to use Ghc 8 billion to address an issue which is non-existent," he questioned.