Ghana became a food haven for Africa during the peak of coronavirus - Issah-Khalifah

Ridwan Issah-Khalifah, a special aide to Agric Minister has touted Ghana’s food security as the best in the sub-region.

He opined that Ghana became a safe haven for food for our neighbouring countries during the peak of the covid-19 era.

He made the remarks in an opinion piece.

Issah-Khalifah disclosed that some ministers from other African countries commended Ghana for the support they received when Covid-19 hit them.

He said: “It may not occur to many Ghanaians that your country was the hero during the peak of the COVID-19 when neighbouring countries trooped to town trade in the huge surplus of grains recorded during the previous year’s harvest.

From the resuscitation of the National Food Buffer Stock programme to the reactivation of the Ghana Commodity Exchange System, the country has become the yardstick for measuring the efficiency and the effectiveness of many aspects of agricultural growth in the sub-region.”

Read his full opinion below:

A couple of weeks ago, Ghana was chosen as host of the Conference on West African Food Security and storage system. The country is seen as a model for West Africa because of the strategic role the country is playing in terms of food security in the West African sub-region.

It may not occur to many Ghanaians that your country was the hero during the peak of the COVID-19 when neighbouring countries trooped to town trade in the huge surplus of grains recorded during the previous year’s harvest.

From the resuscitation of the National Food Buffer Stock programme to the reactivation of the Ghana Commodity Exchange System, the country has become the yardstick for measuring the efficiency and the effectiveness of many aspects of agricultural growth in the sub-region.

It is true a Prophet has no honour amongst his folks but as a member of the Committee in the just ended Conference on Food Security, I felt proud as a Ghanaian hearing testimonies Agric Ministers from other sister countries about how the support of Ghana came in handy during the peak of the COVID-19 outbreak.

I remember somewhere in June last year when some members of the Poultry Feed Millers reached out to our office complaining about how the influx of traders from Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Benin and Nigeria was actually driving them as local buyers out of market.

They were asking for the Ministry’s intervention to halt what they said was unfair competition from these neighbouring traders. The Ministry was therefore left in a dilemma; allow our local farmers to enjoy the windfall(albeit) and profiteer from their sweat or institute measures to prevent the foreign traders from coming to the market which also to some extent , flouted the regional trade protocols.

What is my point? Ghana Beyond Aid should not only be seen in the eyes of cash but also extends to the little things we take for granted. Imagine feeding millions of students free from your meagre budget and produce?

Yes, no matter where a bomb lands (including the backyard of Satan) innocent souls are likely to be hurt!! Every policy has ups and downs.

It was therefore pleasing to see the country’s Minister for Food and Agriculture take centre stage in controlling affairs amongst his peers.