Northern Ghana facing catastrophic crop failures over prolonged dry spell

Ghana's Northern Regional Director of Food and Agriculture, Mr. Sylvester Adongo, has said the three northern regions would experience an acute food shortage if it failed to rain soon in the region. He said the prolonged drought in 10 districts of the region and some parts of the Upper East and Upper West regions was affecting the growth of crops.

Experts have described crops on some farms as "being at their permanent wilting point," where no amount of rainfall would bring them back to life.

Adongo said this when he conducted Alhaji Mustapha Ali Idris, the Northern Regional Minister, to inspect crops that had been badly affected by the prolonged drought in the region. He said if the rains set in now farmers could still plant crops such as maize, groundnuts and millet and these could be harvested in three months time.

"But no crop would survive after July 20, no matter how heavy the rain" Adongo said. He said the region had never experienced drought such as this year's, apart from the I983 "national drought" that affected cocoa and food crop farms throughout the country. He said losses in maize production ranged from 50 to 100 per cent, groundnuts from 70 to 100 per cent, soybean 70 to 100 per cent and yam from 10 to 15 per cent.

Alhaji Idris expressed regret at the rate of crop damage caused by the drought and called for early intervention to address the situation. He appealed to religious bodies to step up their prayers for rain to avert an acute food crisis.

Modern Ghana