Dr. Ernest Addison, Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), has addressed the rise in food prices in 2024, attributing it primarily to the adverse dry weather conditions that affected farming communities in the earlier part of the year.
Speaking at the 122nd Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) press conference in Accra on January 27, Dr. Addison highlighted how the drought severely impacted crop yields and subsequently drove food inflation.
He noted, “Price developments in 2024 indicated a slowdown in the disinflation process, mainly due to food price pressures. Inflation increased from 23.2% in December 2023 to 25.8% in March 2024, before steadily declining to 20.4% in August. However, by December 2024, it rose to 23.8% due to the rise in food prices.”
Dr. Addison explained that the dry weather conditions earlier in the year had a significant negative effect on harvest yields, worsening food price inflation. In contrast, inflation in non-food items showed a steady decline throughout the year, reaching 20.3% by December.
The drought, which affected key agricultural regions in Ghana, put the livelihoods of over 928,000 farmers at risk and posed a significant threat to the country’s food security. Nearly half of the 1.8 million hectares of farmland were impacted, leading to a considerable loss in farmer investments and a projected revenue loss of GHC10.4 billion.
In response, the previous administration under President Akufo-Addo introduced an emergency relief package to help mitigate the crisis. Measures included a temporary ban on grain exports, cash transfers to affected farmers, and plans to import significant quantities of essential grains such as maize and rice to ensure domestic food supply.
The government also tapped into the ECOWAS Grain Reserve and collaborated with the private sector to import 300,000 metric tons of maize and 150,000 metric tons of rice. Poultry feed imports were also arranged to safeguard the poultry industry, which was likewise threatened by the drought.
Farmers were also offered financial support in the form of cash transfers amounting to GHC1,000 per hectare, specifically targeting the most vulnerable among the 435,872 affected farmers. Alongside this, a replanting programme was initiated to provide fast-maturing seeds and fertilizers to help farmers recover.
To prevent future crises, the government has been working with the Ghana Meteorological Agency through the Food System Resilience Project to provide better weather forecasts and advisories for farmers to prepare for climatic challenges.
This crisis, which impacted over 62% of Ghana’s annual grain supply, has underscored the importance of enhancing food security and supporting the resilience of the country’s agricultural sector against climate-related disruptions.
