Increased fuel prices, high transport fares and bad road networks cause of high food prices — Prof Aidoo

Professor Richard Aiddo, an Agriculture Economist at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has said the constant increase of fuel prices and high cost of transportation fares are the cause of the increased cost of foodstuffs.

He said the scarcity of foodstuffs on the market can be attributed to the bad weather that brought about low harvest.

Speaking on Joy News’ ‘AM show” on June 21, he said most of the foodstuffs Ghanaians consume are grown in the hinterlands and must be transported to the urban areas.

He indicated that the high cost of fuel has affected transportation costs coupled with poor road networks to market centres has skyrocketed the price of foodstuff on the market, a situation he claims is the cause of the high rising inflation rate.

“Our agriculture sector is very vulnerable. We are a country that relies on natural rains that God provides. We have not done well with the ‘One Village, One Dam’ policy and so if it doesn’t rain we are unable to do well and we all know what happened last year. The weather pattern was terrible for farmers. This year, it's better so we are hoping for something positive and because of what happened last year we do not have enough food supplies and that is one reason we are having scarcity on the market.

“The second reason we are having high prices is that the fuel cost is also very high. Most of these foods are produced in the hinterlands and so for these trucks to go there and bring them from the Gorsu, Ejura from Nkoranza all the way to Accra and Kumasi and all that then the price will naturally go up. We have a challenge with the transportation network, we have a challenge with fuel prices then we have a challenge with the quantity itself and so I’m not surprised with what we are seeing. If government can do something about the fuel prices then maybe that will help,” he explained to the host.

According to him, the inability of the country to continue with the irrigation method (One village, One Dam) is also an issue that plagues the agricultural sector.