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Worldwide, the Ukraine conflict is leading to unparallel price hikes in food, fuel, and fertilizer. Like in most countries in the world, Ghana is being impacted by these shocks. According to the FAO, as of 2020, there was a 5.6% prevalence of severe hunger and a 36.6% prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity among the Ghana population.
In Ghana, as smallholder farmers prepare the soil for the season, they cannot produce enough food because there is less fertilizer available for the 2022/23 major cropping the prices are rising. For example, as of February 2022, petrol and diesel increased from 4 to 7 cedis, kenkey (a basic staple) from 1 to 3 cedis, and bread from 5 to 10 cedis. National inflation is nearly 13.9%.In simple words, Ghana is already on the path to grow less food this year. Farmers are not producing enough food crops, which affects their households’ livelihoods, and impacts women and children. Even CARE struggled to buy enough inputs to plant demonstration fields this year because of the market changes.
There are projects already in place intended to support smallholder’s farmers on the eve of this fertilizer crisis. The Grow Ghana Initiative led by Yara Ghana Company Limited will provide free bags of YaraMila Actyva fertilizer to 100,000 smallholders farmers. This will help reduce the average fertilizer cost by about one third, allowing the country to keep the food production and ensure food security, with the possibility of preventing hunger in 60 million people in the African continent. This is one of several initiatives designed to cushion the impact of the crisis. To understand more about the current impact of the global food crisis on smallholder farmers and their coping mechanisms in the local context, CARE engaged with farmers in Ghana, in the area of the Wassa East district to collect first-hand information on input prices and the impact of these shocks in the wake of the current global crisis.