The Ranking Member of the Food, Agriculture, and Cocoa Affairs Committee of Parliament, Mr Eric Opoku, has accused the Ministry of Food and Agriculture of performing abysmally in terms of food security in the country.

He wonders why Ghana is importing tonnes of cassava from China.

According to him, since 2019, the Ministry of Agriculture has imported cassava from China to augment Ghana’s depleting cassava stock. 

“No government has exhibited this abysmal level of performance since the coming into being of the 1992 Constitution”, he said.

“Yet, this government is quick to tell Ghanaians that Ghana is exporting foodstuffs to neighbouring countries”, the opposition MP noted when he spoke on Accra100.5FM’s morning show Ghana Yensom hosted by Kwame Obeng Sarkodie on Monday, 21 March 2022.

According to him, the situation on the ground is different, insisting that part from cassava, Ghana also imports tomatoes, poultry, onions, among others.

He said not too long ago, cassava was rotting at many Ghanaian farm gates but now being imported from China under President Nana Akufo-Addo.

Also, he said Ghana spends more than $100 million dollars to import 43 percent of the onions produced in Niger and large quantities of tomatoes from Burkina Faso.

“Ghana now imports 99,633 metric tonnes of rice when in 2016, Ghana was producing 6.50 metric tonnes of rice. Can this be termed a good performance?” he asked.

In 2009, he said Ghana produced 1.6 million metric tonnes of maize hence the introduction of the Buffer Stock Company Limited to maintain operational stocks by buying surpluses from farmers.

Today, the Buffer Stock Company Limited has no funds to buy, hence their silos being empty. 

He warned that in case of any eventuality today, there will be a food shortage