Economist Prof. Patrick Asuming has advised the John Mahama government to approach the agriculture sector differently by cultivating large commercial farms in the Afram Plains area to increase production and stabilize prices of foodstuffs.
He is of the view that prioritizing agriculture is the most effective solution to address the surging food inflation, which continues to drive overall inflation up.
Prof. Asuming’s proposal comes in the wake of the December inflation which recorded a marginal increase to 23.8% from 23.0%.
According to him, “since 2022 food inflation has been the biggest driver of inflation and that is problematic”.
“The immediate thing the government can do is to actually go and set up large scale commercial farms in the Afram Plains area and get a lot of young people to go and help with the production of some of our basic staples immediately”, Prof. Asuming stated.
According to him, most of the policy intervention programmes introduced by the Nana Addo administration did not efficiently tackle the food inflation challenges.
He added that leveraging Ghana’s vast arable land to grow essential food staples would increase local food supply and stabilize prices.
Prof. Asuming underscored the need for improved food distribution to stabilize prices.
“Even in areas where food production has been reasonably okay, transport cost has been extremely high because the road to the main food production centers are not good. If you take yam for instance, you can have places where the northern path will have an abundance of yam and yam prices are extremely high down south.”
Prof. Asuming’s recommendations underscore the urgent need for a robust agricultural policy that prioritizes local production as a sustainable solution to curbing inflation and ensuring food security.Economist Prof. Patrick Asuming has advised the John Mahama government to approach the agriculture sector differently by cultivating large commercial farms in the Afram Plains area to increase production and stabilize prices of foodstuffs.
He is of the view that prioritizing agriculture is the most effective solution to address the surging food inflation, which continues to drive overall inflation up.
Prof. Asuming’s proposal comes in the wake of the December inflation which recorded a marginal increase to 23.8% from 23.0%.
According to him, “since 2022 food inflation has been the biggest driver of inflation and that is problematic”.
“The immediate thing the government can do is to actually go and set up large scale commercial farms in the Afram Plains area and get a lot of young people to go and help with the production of some of our basic staples immediately”, Prof. Asuming stated.
According to him, most of the policy intervention programmes introduced by the Nana Addo administration did not efficiently tackle the food inflation challenges.
He added that leveraging Ghana’s vast arable land to grow essential food staples would increase local food supply and stabilize prices.
Prof. Asuming underscored the need for improved food distribution to stabilize prices.
“Even in areas where food production has been reasonably okay, transport cost has been extremely high because the road to the main food production centers are not good. If you take yam for instance, you can have places where the northern path will have an abundance of yam and yam prices are extremely high down south.”
Prof. Asuming’s recommendations underscore the urgent need for a robust agricultural policy that prioritizes local production as a sustainable solution to curbing inflation and ensuring food security.
Tags: Prof. Patrick Asuming
