Northern Ghana drought was not foreseen - Ministry of Agriculture

The Ministry of Agriculture (MoFA) has admitted that it did not foresee the ongoing drought affecting the northern part of Ghana.

Farmers have since called for urgent assistance from the government due to the damage suffered by farms in the region as a result of the lack of rain for over a month.

The head of Public Relations Officer for MoFA, Tanko Bagbara, mentioned that despite close collaboration with the Meteorological Agency, the ministry did not anticipate the drought reaching a serious level, as reported by citinewsroom.com.

He said, "The Ministry of Food and Agriculture has worked closely with the meteorological station over the period, and we do heed their advice, but we did not foresee this. I do not want to blame anybody because rain-fed agriculture is something you cannot predict naturally to the latter."

Tanko revealed that the names of affected farmers are currently being gathered in preparation for the government's intervention.

"The Ministry has already begun collecting data. So far, eight regions have been affected, with the latest being the Upper East region and Northern region. For the past one and a half months, they have been affected by drought. The Ministry is collating this data to inform future decisions," Tanko stated.

"We all heard the President hint that the government will soon announce interventions to mitigate the drought situation.

"Certainly, it will affect food security because many farms have been completely lost. Even if it rains today, there is no way to recover those farms. The ministry is compiling data, and soon the government will announce interventions," citinewsroom.com quoted him as saying.

RAD/MA