NPP Minority issues grim Farmer’s Day message

The Minority in Parliament is bemoaning the worsening hardship facing farmers and fishers nationwide, arguing that the government has failed to honour basic commitments to the food producers who sustain the country.

In a statement issued on Friday, Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin said the current crisis—marked by unsold grain, collapsing fishing activity, and widespread frustration- reflects “one of the gravest moments in Ghana’s agricultural history.”

He said over one million metric tonnes of paddy rice valued at GH¢5 billion remain abandoned in warehouses across the northern regions, despite a government promise in September that the National Food Buffer Stock Company would purchase all local rice and maize.

“Farmers have been left stranded, their livelihoods jeopardised, and national food security undermined,” he said.

He added that the grain backlog has pushed many communities into despair. “Government promised to buy every grain. Where are you?” he said, citing the placards of farmers who demonstrated in Tamale.

The Minority also drew attention to conditions in coastal communities, especially in Keta, where the prolonged shortage of premix fuel has left many fishers unable to work.

According to Afenyo-Markin, the situation has “crippled the lifeblood of countless households,” leaving boats idle and income streams broken. “A government that cannot ensure the reliable distribution of a basic input like premix fuel has failed in its most elementary duty,” he said.

He warned that the crisis is compounded by the infiltration of cheap, smuggled and sometimes expired food imports that continue to undermine local producers.

“No local farmer or fisher can compete with products that enter the country untaxed and unchecked,” he said. The Minority argued that such imports, combined with illegal fishing practices, have destabilised market prices and weakened the competitiveness of domestic producers.

The statement further highlighted the threat illegal mining poses to cocoa production and national water bodies.

Citing COCOBOD’s figures, Afenyo-Markin said “30,000 hectares of cocoa farms have been lost to galamsey,” describing the trend as “an existential threat to Ghana’s food security and rural economy.”

The Minority outlined urgent actions it says government must take, including the immediate purchase of unsold grain, restoration of premix fuel supply, enforcement against smuggled imports, tougher measures against galamsey and targeted investment in irrigation, storage, landing sites and agro-processing.

Afenyo-Markin said the boycott is a symbolic stand against neglect, insisting that “farmers and fishers deserve leadership that listens, values and protects them.”