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By Edward Graham Sebbie
Small holder farmers across Ghana are expected to receive compensation for losses caused by drought during the 2024 farming season.
The insurance package is being rolled out under the auspices of the African Risk Capacity (ARC), a specialised African Union agency that supports member states in disaster preparedness and provides rapid response when disasters strike, particularly droughts and climate-related shocks. The intervention is being sponsored by the German government.
The latest nationwide stakeholder engagement, held in Ada, brought together peasant farmers, agricultural officers and officials of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) from the East and West Ada Districts of the Greater Accra Region. The two-day engagement aimed to enable officials to conduct needs assessments and gather reliable data on affected farmers in the two districts for the 2024 period, to determine the form the intervention should take.
The Programmes Officer of the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG), Roger Akanbisik, speaking to VoiceAfricaonline.com after the engagement, reiterated the importance of peasant farmers as the backbone of Ghana’s food production and underscored the need for mitigating measures to keep them in business for the benefit of the nation.
“Peasant farmers are very, very important. Most of the food produced in Ghana comes from peasant farmers. We contribute significantly, and without peasant farmers, Ghana would not have reached where it is today,” he emphasised.
Dr Akanbisik noted that Ghana is a contributor to the ARC insurance portfolio and said it was therefore appropriate for affected farmers to benefit from the insurance package. He used the opportunity to urge agricultural officers and NADMO officials to form district-level committees to ensure quick and easy access to victims during times of disaster.
“That is why we encourage agricultural officers and NADMO to form committees so that whenever there are disasters or drought spells, they can alert the technical committee in Accra,” he said.
The PFAG Programmes Officer further appealed to the two institutions to ensure that the intervention reaches the actual victims of the natural disaster. “This intervention is meant for smallholder farmers, not commercial farmers. From my engagements across the country, I have always insisted that beneficiaries should be genuine smallholder farmers,” he added.
It has been established that smallholder farmers across Ghana experienced abnormally low rainfall in 2024, resulting in significant losses to their investments. This unavoidable natural phenomenon triggered the intervention aimed at sustaining their livelihoods.
The stakeholder engagements are expected to continue, after which affected farmers will receive support packages determined through the assessment process.
