As Burkina
Faso battles with one of the worst growing seasons in recent years, Ghana risks
facing a tomato shortage as the former controls 90 percent of the commodity’s
imports into the country.
The growing season in Burkina Faso, over the last two years, has been facing
challenges owing to extremely sparse rainfall in around 20 of the country’s 45
provinces – with experts predicting that the situation could persist, and even
worsen in the near future.
Data from the Ghana Incentive-Based Risk-Sharing System for Agricultural
Lending (GIRSAL) indicate that Ghana currently imports 90 percent of its fresh
tomatoes from Burkina Faso.
Tomatoes, according to GIRSAL, currently have a national consumption demand of
800,000 metric tonnes per annum. Local production however continues to slump,
unable to meet half of the consumption targets.
Equally, the tomato processing industry in Ghana remains small and relies
heavily on imports of raw materials – concentrate and additives.
Meanwhile, processing plants installed in Pwalugwu, Techiman and Wenchi have
all been shut down due to the unavailability of quality raw materials at
affordable prices.
Ghana is estimated to consume more than 100,000 metric tonnes of tomato
mix annually, apart from the fresh fruit.
Why situations in Burkina Faso
may impact Ghana
The Burkina Faso Ministry of Agriculture has said almost three million people
are suffering from food insecurity, as new weather patterns have already turned
50,000 hectares of farmland into barren fields.
Last year, Burkina Faso experienced a 461,000-tonne grain and cash crop
shortage countrywide. Government figures have indicated that more than 450,000
hectares of arable land lay fallow in 2021 owing to rising levels of violence.
In June this year, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in a
statement said: “Thousands of displaced people in Burkina Faso, facing both a
major food crisis and an upsurge in armed violence, have come to rely entirely
on government and humanitarian organisations. They are forced to abandon their
crops and means of livelihood; these people are now extremely vulnerable”.
The Red Cross however noted that over 32,000 people in the Est, Nord and Sahel
regions – both residents and displaced people – were given crop seedlings,
notable among which were tomato, onion, millet, sorghum and cowpea seeds in
order to grow cash crops at the subsistence level.
These happenings, stakeholders have hinted, must be a guiding path for Ghana to
begin the right processes to enhance domestic production with deliberate
attempts to reduce imports.
Key issues remain with
production in Ghana
Low yields continue to remain one of the major challenges for tomato production
in Ghana, as most farmers cultivate less than 10 metric tonnes per hectare
against the potential of 20 metric tonnes per hectare.
Besides, poor agronomic practices, lack of varieties for commercial
agro-processing, as well as farmers still planting local varieties – typically
with high water content, many seeds, poor colour and low brix level – have all
been identified as key production setbacks.
Source: B&FT
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