A report on the “Impact of COVID-19 on Agribusinesses in Ghana” has revealed that businesses in the agriculture sector value chain have started sourcing inputs from domestic sources.

Although the drift in policy is said to be slow, about eight per cent of firms in the sector has resorted to diversification of source of input supply to include more input within Ghana, as part of measures to mitigate the impact of the pandemic.

An analysis shows that businesses in the sector, experienced a reduction in the supply of inputs for their operations due to the pandemic.

However, before the first cases of COVID-19 were reported in Ghana, only 11.7 per cent of agriculture firms reported a decrease in the input supply, compared to 53.9 per cent of firms reporting a decrease in input supply during March and April 2020 and a fall to 45.9 per cent between May 2020 and January 2021.

Preliminary findings of the study by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) funded by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), cite disruptions in the global supply chain and border closure measures to mitigate the effects of the pandemic as key factors.

Regional supplies

A regional distribution shows that among the firms that experienced a decrease in input supply, the Greater Accra Region had the most of those firms throughout the three periods.

However, the Upper East Region, followed by the Savannah Region had firms that reported 65.2 per cent and 61.9 per cent respectively between May 2020 and January 2021.

Objectives

According to a media release issued in Accra, the Government Statistician, Prof. Samuel K. Annim, said the study was conducted to assess the disruption in the global and regional economies on turnover, labour force, purchasing power, demand and supply of products and services within the agribusiness channels.

“It examined the impact of the pandemic at different times (pre-lockdown, during lockdown and post-lockdown), analysed the response mechanism and strategies of agribusiness and support received from local government authorities and examined the contingency mechanisms and strategies that proved effective for agribusiness during the pandemic and what could be done differently in the future,” he said.

Input sector

This sector of agribusiness is concerned with providing safe inputs for agricultural production. If poor inputs are invested in the production process, then it is not unusual to get poor output.

The input sector of the agribusiness industry basically deals with the provision of inputs to make agricultural production safe, secure and profitable. Inputs required for agricultural production include seeds, agrochemicals such as fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides, feeds for livestock, drugs for livestock, irrigation systems, machinery such as tractors and tractor-coupled implements like planters and harvesters.

The input sector of the agribusiness industry is made up of firms that engage in the production and distribution of agricultural inputs listed above.

Other findings

It emerged that in relation to the effects of COVID-19 on agriculture finance, three out of 10 agribusiness firms reported a decrease in access to agriculture finance during and after the lockdown.

It said the marginal increase in access to agriculture finance since the lockdown pointed to some improvement in access to agriculture finance.

“High interest rate is an impediment to access to agriculture finance. Many firms also reported of inaccessibility to financial products and relatively, overdraft is not very critical in limiting access to agriculture finance,” the report stated.