The consignment, made up of maize, rice, millet and sorghum, is to be distributed as food grants to eight regions in Ghana that experienced dry spells leading to the disruption of crop production.

The beneficiary regions are Northern, Upper East, North East, Savannah, Upper West, Bono, Bono East and Oti.

The lack of rain over the past two months has severely impacted the planting season in many of the farming areas.  

Indeed, the Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMet) predicted intermittent dry spells during this year’s cropping season.

However, the dry spells in the eight regions have been continuous, resulting in near-drought conditions that have significantly disrupted crop production.

Of the eight affected regions, the Northern Region is said to be the worst hit, with the Upper East Region being the least affected.

Some of the notably affected communities in the Upper East Region include Gabuliga, Teshie, Boya and Ankpaliga.

ECOWAS food reserve

Handing over the consignment, the ECOWAS representative in Ghana, Charles Ndiaye, pleaded with the country to construct additional warehouses in the north to store more grains for the sub-region.

He said the Regional Food Security Reserve was the third pillar of ECOWAS’ regional storage strategy, adopted by its 15 member states and created by an additional Act to the ECOWAS Treaty adopted by the ECOWAS heads of state and government on February 28, 2013.

"I believe the development of food security storage at the three complementary scales, namely local stocks, national security stocks and regional stocks, allows the region to strengthen its risk management capacity and its food sovereignty," he said.

Mr Ndiaye expressed appreciation to the various technical and financial partners who had been supporting the operationalisation of the Regional Food Security Reserve since 2016.

They include the European Union (EU), the French Development Agency (AFD), the Spanish Cooperation (AECID) and the World Bank.   

More silos

The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr Bryan Acheampong, said Ghana had requested an additional 10,000 tonnes of cereals in addition to the 100,000 tonnes received from the government.

He said the ministry had already secured 34,000 tonnes of rice to augment what had been received.

Dr Acheampong stated that the current 80,000 tonnes capacity warehouse was not enough, promising to have a 100,000—tonne capacity of silo or warehouse in every region for grain reserve to cushion farmers during the dry season.

Dr Acheampong called for a partnership with ECOWAS to build capacities of local expertise in that regard.

That, according to him, was to enable "Ghana to stand on its feet" during such difficult periods.