We did not foresee the impact of the drought - Agric Ministry

Ghana's Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) admitted that it underestimated the severity of the ongoing drought in northern Ghana.

Farmers in the region have called for immediate support from the government after being severely hit by a drought that has lasted over a month and a half. 

Speaking on Citi Fm,  Tanko Bagbara, Head of Public Relations at MoFA, indicated that, while the ministry has been working closely with the Ghana Meteorological Agency, they did not anticipate the drought increasing to its current devastating level.

"The Ministry [of Food and Agriculture] over the period has worked closely with the meteorological station and we do heed their advice, but we did not foresee this and I do not want to blame anybody because all I know is that rain-feed agriculture is something you cannot predict naturally to the latter,” he stated.

"The Ministry has gone to work and as we speak, we are still collecting data, so far, we have eight regions affected and the latest is the Upper East region and Northern region and for the past one and a half months, they have been affected by drought and the Ministry is collating this data that will inform a decision going forward.

“We all heard the President give a hint that the government will soon announce some interventions to mitigate the drought situation.

“Certainly, it is going to affect food security because a lot of farms have been lost completely and even if it rains today, there is no way we can recover those farms and so the ministry is putting data together and very soon the government will announce some interventions," he added.

Source: Lead News Online