Most of the northern region has been faced with severe drought in recent times. This has partly contributed to the escalated prices of food in the country. The Northern region can pride itself of being the major stakeholder in food supply in the country.
Speaking in an interview with Radio Univers on the Knowledge Cafe show, Programmes Officer at the Foundation for Security and Development in Africa, Mr. Ali Ibrahim, shared insights on the annual drought experienced by small and large-scale farmers in the northern region, with this year’s drought hitting the hardest.
“I think generally we happen to have this situation year on year but this particular year I think it has been so bad.”
He cited among myriad observations what has been the canker to the cause of the yearly drought in the northern region.
“Our observation is pointing to the fact that a lot of climate change issues are coming in, a lot in terms of the rainfall pattern has really been affected, and a host of other factors are contributing to this.”
Beyond citing these observations, he made mention of flooding in some key areas in the north east region, which did not really augur well when it comes to food security issues in the country.
“We are supposed to be in the harvesting season, yet we are faced with exorbitant prices of food commodities in the country. I think we need a lot of thinking to salvage the situation in the northern region.”
Mr. Ali added that the government has not done its utmost, best in ensuring an all-year-round farming in the northern region. This follows his recent observation upon his visit to the northern region.
” Probably we have just done 2 out 10 on a scale of 10. I was in the northern region just quite recently, and the situation there is quite different in terms of the environmental factors, which are completely different,, particularly the water silos that were situated at Paga, which have dried up completely.”
He mentioned that the problem at hand is known, but it takes a political will to change the situation.
“I think there is supposed to be a deliberate policy to intervene in those areas and get these done as soon as possible since the rain pattern in the northern region has changed completely for years now.”
“We have the policies, we have the ideas but the political will to change the situation has not been championed and I think it is a sad one.”
Sharing some insight on the one district, one dam policy by the incumbent government, Mr. Ali stated that the policy is a laudable one, but however the execution of the policy has been poorly implemented.
“First of all, the policy should have been decentralized and community owned, and accountability measures would have been so easy. The dams built have all dried up; hence, the purpose for which those dams have been done has not materialized.”
In his concluding remarks, he urged policy makers not to just follow procurement but be on the look out for something fit for purpose and anytime policies are to be implemented, they should look at the factors that will make it better for execution.
Story by: Wisdom Elorm Dagadu | univers.ug.edu.gh
