Agriculture Ministry pledges to tackle tomato shortages, cut imports

Ministry of Food and Agriculture through the West Africa Food System Resilience Program (FSRP), has reaffirmed its commitment to addressing tomato shortages and reducing excessive imports during the dry season.

To stabilize market prices, the ministry through FSRP is implementing a Tomato Intensification Program in key production zones across Ghana to boost local tomato production.

The initiative is funded by a US$2.2 million Norwegian grant and is being executed under the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, with coordination from the World Bank.

Through the FSRP-Norwegian Tomato Scheme, 1,500 tomato farmers are receiving inputs and training to produce 10,000 metric tons of tomatoes within the first quarter of this year.

As part of the intervention, the Crops Research Institute under CSIR in Kwadaso, Kumasi, is developing breeder and foundation seeds suited to Ghana's hot and humid agroecological conditions.

In an interview with Dr. Michael Kwabena Osei, Principal Research Scientist and Tomato Breeder at CSIR-Crops Research Institute, and Dr. Gabriel Owusu, Project Officer for the Norwegian Tomato Support under FSRP on Friday, February 14, they provided insights on the program.

“The Ministry of Food and Agriculture is implementing a program called the Food System Resilience Project which is being funded by the World Bank and in that project there is a sub-project in which the Norwegian government is providing funding to support tomato production. The project has attracted private entities to produce certified tomato seeds at Wenchi

“For now, I can say we are in the right position to reduce importation and then in a long time we can be sure that this will be stopped as far as tomato importation is concerned. In the next two, or three years we should be able to reduce more than 50% of tomato importation.