Ghanaians drag agric minister for describing agric ministry's data as fake

Minister says Ghana produced over 1.8m metric tons of maize in 2018

Data show Ghana's maize production was around 600,000 metric tons in 2018

Govt can't be blamed for the increase in prices of food items- Agric Minister

Food and Agriculture Minister, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, is being maligned on social media following his bold assertion that data from his Ministry that showed Ghana's maize production was around 600 000 metric tons in 2018 was wrong.

Dr. Afriyie Akoto said the highest maize production before the New Patriotic Party came to power was 1.8 million metric tons, and this government has never produced below that.

"Before we came into office, the highest maize production in Ghana was 1.8 million metric tons. We have increased that to 3.1 million metric tons by 2020… the total production (in 2018) was never 637,000 metric tons.

"You are being too technical here; you are asking me statistics … I cannot sit here and give you specific statistics, but if you say that Ghana's total production of maize is around 600000, I will challenge you to that is not true. It is never true (that we produce around 600,000) ... this document is wrong," he said in a Citi FM interview monitored by GhanaWeb.

Also, he said that the government should not be blamed for the increase in prices of food products because these prices are determined by the costs of oil, fertilizer and other inputs, which are mostly imported.

Dr Akoto also refuted claims that Ghana's food security has reduced, saying that data gathered by his Ministry does not support the assessment of the Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU) and the Global Food Security Index (GFSI) that Ghana food security index has dropped.