Ghana’s reliance on food imports from arid, landlocked Burkina Faso has been described as a curse by Akyaaba Addai-Sebo, a veteran Ghanaian journalist.
Lamenting about how different things used to be in the 1960s and 1970s, Addai-Sebo said, “We were producing most of what we needed, but now, we import over 70% of our protein needs.
How can it be? We have killed the poultry industry. We are not producing what we consume.”
According to Addai-Sebo, Ghana having to rely on Burkina Faso for food when the country is blessed with vast fertile land is unacceptable.
“It is a curse on us to be importing tomatoes and onions from Burkina Faso. It is a curse on us. With this rich arable land surrounding us, and they the Sahel. What is wrong?” he questioned.
The culprits, in his view, are those of his generation who divested Ghana’s industrial assets under the Structural Adjustment Programme of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“And, my generation did it. We destroyed the industrial and manufacturing base of this country. Tyre factory, Abosso Glass Factory. Look at the importance of glass in building construction.”
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