Development Discourse with Amos Safo: When a country goes begging for tomato

One of the scandals confronting Ghana in 2026 is the current government begging Burkina Faso to rescind the ban on tomato exports to Ghana. On March 19, Burkina Faso suspended fresh tomato exports to Ghana to protect its local processing industry. While the policy could support BF’s local industry, it had obvious trade implications between the two countries. However, the decision caused a significant supply shortages of tomatoes in Ghana. Then on April 2, 2026, the ban was lifted following what was reported as bilateral discussions between the leaders of the two countries.

Retaliation
In fact, our government pleaded with the visionary leader of Burkina Faso, Captain Ibraihim Traore to lift the ban, perhaps to save it from disgrace. Perhaps, BF could not have sustained the ban because the landlocked economy is largely dependent on Ghana Ports and Habours and the road networks for the bulk of its imports and exports, including fuel and gas. Therefore, any retaliatory policy on using Ghana’s ports and roads could have dire economic consequences on the landlock country.

The dispute in the export of tomato to Ghana started on February 14, 2026, when seven Ghanaian tomato traders were killed during a terrorist attack in Titao, Burkina Faso. This prompted the Ghana government to temporarily suspend tomato imports from Burkina Faso.

Impact on Ghana
After Ghana announced a temporary suspension of tomato imports, the Burkinabe government responded by announcing a ban on tomato exports to Ghana. The announcement caused political anxiety in Ghana, as many critics of the government alluded to its failure to invest in small-scale farming to produce tomato for local consumption.

Ghana, which heavily depends on imported tomatoes from Burkina Faso, faced severe supply shortages and increasing prices in local markets, especially in the southern regions due to the high cost of transportation. Not only does Ghana rely on Burkina Faso for raw tomatoes, but the country is also one of the highest importers and consumer of processed or tin tomato.

Many processed tomatoes have artificial additives and are therefore not fit for human consumption; yet these artificial tomatoes have flooded our market since the 1980s when Ghana liberalized her economy. Consequently, the economy became a dumping ground for shoddy and dangerous products. These shoddy products include fake pharmaceuticals and poisonous chicken which have flooded our market in the name of trade liberalization.

Key aspects of the ban
As indicated earlier, the government banned fresh tomato exports to prioritize its domestic processing industry and reduce post-harvest losses. Moreover, the policy sought to add value locally, rather than exporting raw tomatoes to sleeping giants like Ghana, which has been exporting raw cocoa beans, rather than increasing processing.

Below are the justifications for the proposed ban on tomato exports to Ghana
Protection of local industry: The ban aimed to channel fresh tomatoes to Burkinabè processing units, specifically to produce paste and puree rather than exporting raw tomatoes.
Addressing shortages: The decision was intended to ensure consistent supply for national processing factories, which often faced shortages, particularly during peak trade periods.

BF’s policy initiatives
Burkina Faso is boosting small-scale farming through the 2023 “offensive agro-pastoral” initiative, which focuses on food sovereignty by distributing subsidized machinery (tractors, tillers) and inputs (seeds, fertilizer) to farmers. Policies include creating a national agricultural bank for interest-free loans, investing in solar-powered irrigation, and strengthening land tenure security for women and smallholders to promote year-round production. Other policy initiatives are outlined below. What has happened to Ghana’s Agricultural Development Bank? It appears ADB has lost its focus in financing and improving agricultural productivity. Arguably, ADB is more into commercial banking than developing financing, perhaps, a case for misplaced priorities.

Massive mechanization and input distribution: The government has accelerated the distribution of agricultural equipment, such as motor pumps and tractors, and provides subsidized fertilizer, pesticide, and seed inputs to farmers.

Agro-pastoral offensive (2023-2025): A strategic campaign aimed at food sovereignty by investing over 104 billion CFA francs to modernize farming techniques, increase arable land, and boost production of staples like rice, maize, and sorghum.
Irrigation and water management: To reduce dependence on rain-fed agriculture, policies prioritize building irrigation infrastructure and deploying motorized pumps, including solar-powered systems to facilitate year-round farming.

Financial inclusion and land security: The establishment of a national agricultural bank provides interest-free loans to farmers. Reforms such as the 2009 Rural Land Tenure Law and the 2012 revised Réorganisation Agraire et Foncière (RAF) aim to secure land rights and facilitate land access.

Empowering Smallholder Resilience: Projects like the Agricultural Value Chains Promotion Project (PAPFA) and the Neer-Tamba Project empower small-scale farmers through better market access, training in sustainable methods, and enhanced agro-processing capacity.
Modernizing agriculture with technology: Programs promote innovative agricultural techniques, including the use of improved compost, soil restoration techniques like stone lines and zai pits, and the utilization of drones for mapping in some sectors.
According to Food and Agricultural Organisation( FAO) these measures are geared toward enhancing productivity, promoting agro-processing to prevent post-harvest losses, and diversifying income streams through fisheries and livestock management.

What a shame?
The above policy initiatives reflect the seriousness of a government and leadership bent on causing massive transformation in agriculture, to control what its population consumes. On the other hand, our government has no clear policy to address the issues affecting agricultural productivity. If we cannot produce a common vegetable like tomato for local consumption and have perennially depended on Burkina Faso for raw tomato, it sums up the deplorable state of our economy.

What a shame for Ghana to beg Burkina Faso to lift its ban on tomato exports to Ghana. In everything-from arable land to water resources Ghana is more endowed than Burkina Faso. Geographically, the driest and northern most part of Ghana-Navrongo, Bawku, Hamile, Nandom etc are the southern part of Burkina Faso. This means that it rains more in the driest part of Ghana than the wettest part of Burkina Faso.

Local production
Despite, these disadvantages of less rain and dry land, Burkina Faso is producing more local food-rice, millet, maize, guinea corn, tomato etc than Ghana. Moreover, most of Burkina Faso’s fresh rainwater flows into our black and white volta rivers and finally into the sea with no productive use. With less rain than Ghana, Burkina Faso has developed effective mechanisms to harvest and utilize rainwater more than endowed Ghana. The landlocked country’s irrigation systems are some of the most efficient in West Africa. Their small-scale irrigation systems empower small-scale farmers, especially women to farm 365 days a year.

Despite massive improvements in irrigation, the country continues to expand and improve its agricultural systems. Since 2023, the government of Captain Ibrahim Traore continues to invest in small farm machines like power tillers, irrigation pumps, tractors and harvesters to improve small-scale farming for young men and women. As indicated earlier, it has also invested massively in agro-processing factors to process raw food and reduce post-harvest losses. It is these young men and women who are producing more tomato for Ghanaians consume, while our abundant land and water resource are wasting. If you drive from Accra through Tamale to Bawku or Accra through, Bole to Wa and Hamile, you will appreciate the fact that God has blessed Ghana with arable land. Yet, we are hungry for everything, including tomatoes, carrots and vegetables. In a country where government is interested in illegal mining than farming, the net result will be the inevitable shortage of tomatoes.

The craze of four-wheel drive
While Captain Traore and his government are channeling their resources into productive ventures, our political leaders are spending million of taxpayers’ money in procuring four-wheel drives and customized Range Rovers, Landcruisers, Lexus and Infinity etc. The government prefers to spend our money on luxury cars for its ministers and political functionaries- chiefs, pastors and Reverends, while our system cannot produce common tomatoes for domestic consumption. What is the justification for wasting millions of cedis to supply sanitary pads to school girls, instead of divesting the money into improving irrigation and supporting young men and women to go into productive ventures like farming tomatoes? Investing in tomato production for young men and women will obviously reduce unemployment and yield returns on investment because there is an inelastic demand for tomato.

There is something basically wrong with those we have entrusted power. In fact, the tomato import scandal has exposed the shortcomings of our priorities as a country. How much will it take to revive the irrigation sector, compared with the huge money the government spends on importing luxury cars and financing dubious sole sourced road contracts and other shady procurement practices?

Appeal to Traore
I am appealing to the government of Burkina Faso to reconsider lifting the ban on Ghana importing their tomatoes. A permanent ban will hopefully compel our political office holders to think outside the box and prioritise agriculture over supplying sanitary pads to girls and buying luxury cars for their political cronies. Burkina Faso is teaching our leaders valuable lessons that investing in agriculture; and empowering people to do small scale farming is far more beneficial than investing in luxury cars.

We need innovation in the agricultural sector to boost the production of common consumables like tomatoes, carrots and other vegetables, which we are import from Burkina Faso and Togo. Undoubtedly, agricultural productivity contributes more to the gross domestic product of a country than buying cars, which is rather a drain on the economy. How can an economy that is supposedly performing well be importing tomatoes from a dry Sahelian country like Burkina Faso? The true state of our economy is that we cannot produce common tomatoes to feed ourselves.

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