By Helena Selby
Food has always being meant to be eaten by man for survival and in order for man to obtain energy for his daily activities. Apart from that food is needed for mankind’s daily growth and good health. Food is a daily necessity of mankind no wonder even in the biblical word Essau sold his birth right just for a loaf of bread, this shows how important food is to mankind. Though man cannot live without food and it is emphatic that man always have access to food, the situation does not look at it that way food is more often than not in short supply in many parts of the world even in the developed world. Many nations in the world are very insecure in terms of food in such a way that there have being shortage in the supply of food hence bringing about scarcity. War prone nations which normally suffer most the consequences of food insecurity since their precious time are mostly spent on violence so have lesser time in cultivating crops for themselves. They always have to end up being handicapped in terms of food accessibility. The issue of food insecurity has even compelled people to spend about 70% of their income on food alone rather than on education, health and miscellaneous. Situation in Ghana
In Ghana food insecurity struck during 1983 which many Ghanaians at that time testify of how horrible it was to the extent that people have to wake up at dawn only to queue up for food for their family. In those times according madam Rosemond Akorful who is about 51 years now people especially parents had sleepless night always just because of what their wards will eat the next day. Money was very much available but food was not enough for money to buy, people even went to the extent of even fighting among themselves in queues. The situation is not the same as 1983; presently however history invisibly seems to be unveiling itself in the economy. Of late the cry of most Ghanaian concerns the rate at which the prize of food is galloping at a very great pace.
According to dealer in food stuff and other food products, the increase in prices of food stuff is no fault of theirs and that the prices increases as a result of the frequent increase in the price of fuel leading to increase in transportation fare. The rate at which the economy is turning into people have to buy a loaf of bread that was sold at GHp 0.80 in January now selling at GH¢1.80. A bag of maize that was sold at GH¢ 40 six months ago now costs GH¢75. The increases are also reflected in transport fares which have also gone up by more than thirty percent. "I can now save some money to keep my sons in school," said a 55 year old father of three, John Appiah who says he currently spends 70 per cent of his GH¢ 300 monthly income on food and transportation every month.
The northern part of Ghana is no exemption, more often during certain period of the years the nation expects rain to fall during the rainy season but turns out that the whole of the year becomes very dry throughout. How ironic during those time while Ghanaian cry for rain to fill the Akosombo dam, the same rain tend to destroy a lot of farmlands and developmental projects in the Upper East, Upper West and Northern regions of the country. example during the later part of last year the heavy torrential rain did not only destroyed a lot of home rendering people homeless but also destroyed a lot of farmland causing hunger and the prevalence of mosquitoes in the region. Imagine living without food and at the same time being beaten by mosquitoes resulting into malaria. The flood was heavy in such a way that people even had to use canoes to cross at any point in time. The issue seemed to be not beyond the control of the government but unfortunately the government had no choice than to run to the United Nation (UN) for intervention. Apart from the government asking for aid from the UN and transporting food stuffs from the south to these three regions, coordinating council, the government, Non-governmental Organizations, philanthropic organizations, religious bodies and individuals, or even claiming lives, as we experienced last year.
Situation worldwide
The fact that there is a food crisis confronting the world is no more a projection, but a stark reality that many nations, particularly the poor are grappling with. World food prices have gone up more than half and are still rising. According to Time World website emergency fiscal measures including suspending import taxes, restricting exports and releasing emergency food stocks onto markets have been undertaken in many countries in the region. Ghana's West African neighbours, Ivory Coast, Niger and Burkina Faso have all witnessed violent protests in response to the rising global food prices that has crippled several families. In Senegal, 130,000 public sector workers are currently striking in protest at high food prices.
They are demanding salary hikes and frequent strikes in Burkina Faso. There are other problems like the spike in oil prices, which hit $103 per barrel in recent days, have pushed up fertilizer prices, as well as the cost of trucking food from farms to local markets and shipping it abroad. Then there is also climate change, harvests have been seriously disrupted by freak weather, including prolonged droughts in Australia and southern Africa, floods in West Africa, and this past winter's deep frost in China and record-breaking warmth in northern Europe. The World Bank says the price of staple crops such as wheat; rice and corn have all risen, leading to an increase in overall food prices of 83 per cent in the last three years.
Government’s supports
According to allafrica.com has become the latest country in West Africa to announce it is struggling to manage its national budget in the face of spiralling world prices for fuel and food. Newly released statistics from the government show Ghana's expenditure on crude oil imports rose from US$ 500 million in 2005 to US$ 2.1 billion by the end of 2007 for the same quantity of oil. Ministry of Finance officials say Ghana's current budget was drawn up with an estimated crude oil price of US$ 85 a barrel, whereas the current world price of oil is hovering around US$ 135 per barrel. In view of this the President John Kufour announced a US$1 billion package of interventions to mitigate the impact on Ghanaians. He said the government would "immediately" drop all import duties on rice, wheat, yellow corn and vegetable oil.
As well as the removal of excise duties oil and tax on fuel for the country's fishermen and subsidies on fertilizer and free tractors for farmers. He said the removal of taxes on petroleum products and some food items will "certainly" improve Ghana's ability to raise enough needed revenue to invest in producing more food for local consumption.
Causes of food crises
Apart from the high imposition of taxes on imported food, rapid growth in population has been considered to be one of the causes of food crises in pour recent economy. In Ghana the population of citizens increase every now and then. According to statistic there are many children in the country than grown up. Imagine a population where the children are more than the older generation, how are the few older ones going to work to feed the greater number of the younger the generation. It is of no doubt that if the older ones refuse to work hard to support surely there will be food shortage leading to food crises. The increase in population and the still production of crops will surely bring about scarcity in food supply. Moreover the increased use of crops such as maize for the production of ethanol results in large amounts of farmland being used for fuel production, rather than for food, lowering food production output, and therefore raising prices. For countries such as Ghana, who rely heavily on importing certain food products from abroad, inflation such as this can be crippling.
Senior Economist in the World Bank's Agricultural Unit, Robert Townsend, explains the problems facing West African nations, if they continue to import inflated food supplies:
"In West Africa, rice accounts for a much larger share of food consumption than in Eastern and Southern Africa. As more rice than maize is imported, local food prices in West Africa will be more affected. Countries with local supply disruptions are also particularly vulnerable to global price increases, as experience with the drought in Burkina Faso, the recent cyclone in Madagascar, and localized floods in Ghana have shown. "Less local supply means more reliance on imports to meet domestic demand — imports which are now much more costly. Within these countries, the poor will be especially vulnerable as they often spend as much as half their disposable income on food.
Though the prices of transportation fare increase the cost of food, sometimes the shortage of food in the market is the cause of the dealers. More often than not people turn to hoard their food stuffs with the explanation that, the price will increase for them to get more profits as result the food turn out to decompose making it not to be useful at all. Food in this case is wasted for no apparent reason.
Conclusion
Food preservation is a good thing, though most of the blame has being put on fuel prices, the society can go a long way in preventing food insecurity when one learns how to protect food and not waste it. It is our individual responsibility since we all depend on food for our survival.
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