COVID –19: Hiking Food Prices Across Africa; Gambia Moves To Reverse The Trend

Prices for basic foodstuffs are rising in Africa, as market women stock on essentials and sellers seek profits amid the restrictions brought on globally by the Coronavirus pandemic (COVID19).

Across the continent, people are calling for governments to intervene because it having a devastating impact on livelihood.

They said they were caught by surprise by the rapid rise of prices. “The food I was buying some weeks ago at $2, €1.80 increased to $4 and this is a problem for us,” they told his reporter.

The 2020 Global Food Policy Report by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) revealed that lack of infrastructure and skills is holding back the development of food supply chains in low-income Africa and Asia, especially where the potential is greatest: in small towns and intermediate cities near rural farmlands.

“inclusive food systems can help break the intergenerational cycle of poverty, hunger, and malnutrition” the report indicated.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) also in their 2020 report titled 'addressing the impacts of COVID-19 in food crises' indicated that proper functioning of market chains and the flow of agricultural products are key factors influencing food security and nutrition.

“advocating for key food item corridors to remain open as much as possible while safeguarding the health of farmers and food workers across the whole value chain in compliance with national public health mitigation measures,” the report said.

In an exclusive interview with this reporter on Africa's agricultural sector, challenges smallholder farmers are facing and how policymakers are responding to food hikes, the sector players said the happens in the sector is heartbreaking.

“We are losing much of our income as a result of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, it has disrupted the global food supply chain,” they said.

A journalist working in the Republic of the Gambia Mr. Ibrahima Aliou Jallow said their President is acting under section 3 of the Emergency Powers Act which he used to promulgate the Essential Commodities Emergency Powers Regulations in response to COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Mr. Jallow, President Mr. Adama Barrow on the 26th of March declared a State of Emergency throughout the country amidst the global pandemic, COVID-19.

The President said that the wholesale and retail prices of all essential commodities are frozen to the prices they were sold in the open market as of the 18th March 2020.

“Essential commodities such as; Rice, Maize, Millet, Flour, Chicken, Sugar, Milk, Bread, Egg, Meat, Fish, Cooking oil, Onion, Tomato paste, Potato, Soap and Sanitizers should not see an increase in price,” he said.

The journalist revealed that the regulation also prohibits the hoarding of essential commodities in any way or form.

When asked if the regulations are working; he said the police in the Gambia is enforcing the regulations and they have prosecuted several traders before the court.

“our courts have fined several of them for violating the regulations an amount of Five Hundred Thousand Dalasis (about $10,000) and the immediate suspension of their trade license” he added.

The Chief Executive Officer, Community Advocacy Against Poverty Mr. Antonio Gomado indicated to this reporter that the price hikes are affecting hundreds of livelihoods in Ghana especially those in the Hohoe municipality and its environs where he is doing some work because most of their foodstuffs come from Togo and for the border closure prices are escalating.

But in a statement released by the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto indicated that there is enough food in the system.

“There is no need for anybody to stockpile food in the house as the marketing of food items is to continue uninterrupted,” the statement said.

Civil society group Alliance for Science Ghana is asking the Minister to come up with a “COVID-19 Emergency Food Security Preparedness Plan” to ensure food security as the Coronavirus spreads. “unscrupulous traders have unfortunately taken advantage of the situation and increased the prices of some food items like cereals, vegetables, tuber crops, fruits, and egg” the group said.

President, Ghana Agricultural and Rural Development Journalists Association, Mr. Richmond Frimpong is challenging the minister to make known locations for reserved and preserved food. “with claims that we have sufficient food, can the ministry tell us the tonnage of maize, rice, beans or tubers of yam we have at the moment” he quizzed.