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Tamale, Ghana – It has been discovered that after over a decade of introduction of the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) which serves school children hot meals every day, the programme has not been able to achieve its third objective of economic empowerment among farmers as less than 10 percent of caterers currently engaged by the programme buy from local farmers.
According to a research report released by Save Our Environment Foundation (SEF), a local non-profit organisation based in the Ahafo Region, much effort has been made in reducing hunger and malnutrition among school children, increasing school enrolment, attendance and retention.
The report however stated that, boosting domestic food production and local economies of farmers in beneficiary communities of the GSFP have been given less attention if not neglected.
Programmes Coordinator of SEF, Solomon Frimpong told Savannah News that, whereas caterers in many instances refuse to purchase foodstuffs from local farmers because they feel the prices are unfair, ignorance on the part of many caterers with regards to the law requiring them to buy from farmers hugely accounts for the reason.
He called on Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, GSFP management and other stakeholders to enforce the condition that requires that caterers purchase foodstuffs from local farmers in their communities.
The report, titled “Advocating for the enforcement of the Ghana School Feeding Policy to improve the economies of local farmers” was outdoored at a sensitization workshop organized by SEF in Tamale.
The workshop brought together officials of MMDAs, farmers, teachers and some opinion leaders to critique the report and make inputs into a final recommendation for future advocacy efforts.
The report said: “With the introduction of some government’s flagship programmes such as the Planting for Food and Jobs policy, more inputs and human capital have been invested in agriculture and therefore, there should be readily available markets for the outputs.
“Notwithstanding this effort, existing local farmers do not have readily available access to markets for their produce as even the caterers of the GSFP who are mandated by law to buy foodstuffs from the local farmers decline to purchase foodstuffs from the local farmers.”
The research targeted farmers who produce foodstuffs, caterers and duty bearers in all the then 10 administrative regions of Ghana. A total of 840 people were interviewed in selected districts in all the 10 regions.
The main objective of the SEF research project funded by the BUSAC Fund with support from Danida, USAID and the European Union was to advocate strongly for the purchase of produce of local farmers as required by the GSFP policy.
The research team led by Dr. Samuel Cobbina found that farmers produced what the caterers use in preparing their meals. However, the farmers said, caterers always want to buy their produce at cheap prices, and when they do, they also delay in paying them which eventually affects them in their next planting season.
Farmers according to the report also complained that failure by majority of caterers to buy their farm produce always affects them economically since most of their produce suffer postharvest losses.
The report recommended that there should some serious advocacy towards ensuring that caterers buy their foodstuffs from local farmers at competitive prices to enable them gain reasonable income.
It also recommended that farmer based organizations should be strengthened to enable them have the confidence to negotiate with caterers so as to avoid being cheated all the time.
Moreover, the report recommended that, the state should buy foodstuffs directly from farmers, pay them promptly and store them in silos in the various MMDAs for subsequent supply to caterers of the GSFP. This, it believed will go a long way to eliminate or reduce unfair prices of farmers’ produce by some caterers and also give ready market to the farmers’ produce.
According to graphic.com.gh, the government of Ghana in the mid-year budget by the Minister of Finance increased the number of beneficiaries of the GSFP from 1.6 to 2.1 million pupils and increased amount spend on each child by 25 percent.
The GSFP provides one hot and adequately nutritious meal to 2.6 million pupils in 8,676 schools per each school day. The programme also provides employment to over 20,000 caterers and cooks nationwide according to the 2018 mid-year budget.
By Savannahnewsonline.com/Philip Liebs
