Ghana to suffer major food crisis by end of year - GAWU

Ghana should expect an acute shortage of food by the end of the year, this is according to the General Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU). The Union claims that the ongoing fall army worm invasion is not being tackled well by government.

So far, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture has revealed that although about 20,000 hectares of farm yields have been affected by fall armyworms invasion, the infestation is under control but the General Secretary of GAWU, Edward Kariweh, has argued that the number of hectares of farm yields go beyond what government is gathering.

According to him, checks by the Union reveal that close to 100,000 hectares of farm lands across the country have been badly affected by the invasion.

“There is no doubt in our minds that at the rate at which these worms are spreading, the rural zone Ghana would be faced with a severe food crisis by the end of the year,” he revealed to Joy Business.

GAWU is therefore calling on government to “ declare a state of emergency” on the invasion so as to make up for practical steps of tackling the development in the next three weeks.

In April 2017, about 1,400 hectares were attacked by the fall armyworms.

The Agriculture Minister, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto had said then that, “it is under control, we’ve seen them spraying and by the end of the week, all the farms affected would have been sprayed and that will be the end of it.”

Read Full Story