President John Mahama marked Ghana’s 68th Independence Day with a bold pledge to pivot the nation’s economy back to its roots: agriculture.
Unveiling a sweeping reform agenda dubbed Agriculture for Economic Transformation, Mahama aims to slash Ghana’s annual $2 billion food import bill and curb stubborn inflation by revamping a sector long hamstrung by underinvestment and inefficiency.
The push comes as food inflation remains alarmingly high at 28.1%, with staples like ginger skyrocketing by 133.5% year-on-year, per February data from the Ghana Statistical Service. “Our overreliance on imported food isn’t just costly—it’s a vulnerability,” Mahama declared, framing the reforms as a pathway to “self-sufficiency in a world of unstable supply chains.”
Central to the plan is the Feed Ghana Program, designed to ramp up local food production through subsidies for staples like rice, maize, and cassava, coupled with guaranteed buyer schemes to stabilize prices. The government also targets the poultry sector, where 95% of demand is met by imports, with the “Nkete Nkete” Initiative (Poultry Farm to Table). The program will provide low-interest loans to domestic producers and enforce stricter tariffs on imported frozen chicken, aiming to resurrect a industry gutted by cheap foreign competition over the past decade.
In a bid to attract youth to farming, the Agridex Program will allocate land and training to 30,000 young Ghanaians, addressing both unemployment and aging farmer demographics. “Agriculture isn’t about hoes and hardship anymore,” Mahama asserted. “It’s about smart tech, entrepreneurship, and jobs.” Complementing this, Farmer Service Centers will offer mechanized tools, seeds, and fertilizers nationwide, targeting a sector where less than 10% of farms use irrigation, leaving yields hostage to erratic rains.
Skeptics, however, recall past false dawns. Ghana’s 2017 “Planting for Food and Jobs” campaign initially boosted production but later faltered due to funding gaps and corruption scandals. Economists warn that success hinges on sustained investment and tackling systemic barriers like poor road networks, which see 30% of harvests rot before reaching markets. “Subsidies alone won’t fix this,” said agronomist. “We need cold storage infrastructure, crop insurance, and reforms to land tenure systems that stifle expansion.”
With food imports draining foreign reserves and inflation squeezing households, the stakes are high. If effective, the reforms could trim import bills, ease price pressures, and create jobs in regions plagued by youth exodus. Yet amid Ghana’s fragile debt restructuring and tight IMF fiscal targets, funding these ambitions remains a looming challenge. As Mahama rallied citizens to “embrace the soil,” many farmers echoed cautious optimism. “Show us the tractors, not just the speeches,” said Kwame Asare, a maize grower in Tamale. “Then we’ll believe.”
For a nation navigating austerity, the gamble is clear: either harvest prosperity from its own soil or remain tethered to the whims of global markets. The seeds of change are sown—but will they take root?
