A woman selling tomatoes in a market in Dedza, Malawi, along the border with Mozambique.
Data from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), indicates that approximately 1.4 million tons of food in Ghana are either lost or wasted along the supply chain.
The estimated tons comprise 50% fruits, 40% vegetables, and 20% tuber crops. The concern is that this impedes Ghana’s chances of achieving the Sustainable Development Goal ( SGD) 12.3 which aims at halving global capita food waste by 2030.
A presentation by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, making reference to data from MOFA noted that the huge number of food lost renders smallholder farmers and petty traders poorer, which is a threat to food security in the country.
Highlighting the major cause of food loss, the presentation cited, “poor road and transportation; inappropriate vehicles and equipment for transporting farm produce, poor road network to farming communities, Inadequate storage infrastructure; inadequate warehouses, inadequate colds storage facilities, marketing, inappropriate marketing facilities, unstable Markets (price fluctuations), Inadequate processing facilities, small scale, industrial processing, and financing, high-interest credit facilities.”
However, the presentation added that the government has taken steps to address the situation by improvement in storage infrastructure thus the One District, One Warehouse (1D1W) initiative, bulk purchases of food to the School Feeding Programme, and the improvement in processing facilities, thus the One District one Factory (1D1F) to process food stuff into finished products.
Additionally, the presentation noted that the government has gone the extra mile to introduce some incentives to lessen the expenses incurred by some food processing companies by introducing a 5 % tax for companies located in the 3 Northern Regions, 20 % corporate tax for locations in Accra and Tema area, 15 % corporate tax for locating in other Regional Capitals and 10% corporate tax outside Regional Capitals.
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