Drought And Food Aid
Ever since the PNDC came to power, it has consistently solicited for food aid from overseas donors to alleviate food shortages which through a combination of drought and other factors have seriously affected the country. Our correspondent reporting from Accra, catalogues operations in that direction by a National Mobilisation Committee and a National Emergency Food Committee on behalf of the government.The Ghanaian Times splashes a big headline: 145,000 metric tonnes food Aid for Ghana. Below the article, there is the picture of John Ndebugre, former NUGS Secretary and Chemical Engineer now Agriculture minister espousing scientific socialism to ground-nut farmers as part of the agricultural revolution. The simple fact is that apart from the shifting personnel manning that particular ministry, the PNDC is yet to come out with a policy on agriculture that's workable. The trend all the years of both civilian and military rules has been theories and speeches and the temptation for them to hide behind the facade of bush fires and drought to go on parading begging bowls around.
In August, 1983, it was at the highest international platform, the United Nations, that the Ghana Government requested that body to assist in org- anising food aid from willing countries. To that appeal, the FAO approved 12,960 metric tonnes of food aid valued then at $3.3 million for Ghana. Earlier this year, P. V. Obeng, the de facto 'Prime Minister' of Ghana launched a National Emergency Food Programme which has set itself a target to look for and receive about 257,000 tonnes of food aid from international organisations and charitable institutions and foreign governments.
On February 24th, this year, the PNDC summoned members of the diplomatic corps, international organisations and religious societies to a meeting in Accra where P. V. Obeng, in an attempt to induce emotion and sympathy for his cause described Ghana's food shortages as a 'crisis of huge proportions'. Kwesi Botchwey, the Secretary for Finance & Economic Planning, laid emphasis on 'Ghana now faces a long period of food crisis for which food aid appears to be the immediate recourse'.
Consequent upon these meetings and appeals, the government created another institution, the National Mobilisation Committee which according to its press secretary, Mr. Vincent Mensah, "is to be the sole agent for receiving aid and organising distribution of the food aid expected to flow into the national bowl under the National Emergency Food Programme." It is only in Ghana that receiving of alms of food has become institutionalised. Nevertheless, P. V. Obeng's appeals did not fall on deaf ears and are getting the responses they rightly deserve.
Recently, the flamboyant Navy Officer, Commodore Steve Obimpeh who heads the National Mobilisation Committee took delivery of a quantity of food aid sent by the U.S. government aboard a ship, the M. V. Rainbow Volans, which docked at Tema for many weeks. This consisted of 600 metric tonnes of wheat, 200 metric tonnes of vegetable oil, 1,560 metric tonnes of non-fat dried milk and 4,285 metric tonnes of rice. Much of the response to the PNDC's appeals have come from the World Food Programme.
To date, the WFP has sent in 10,800 metric tonnes of maize, 1,080 metric tonnes of dried milk, 1,080 metric tonnes of corn-soya milk, 540 metric tonnes of canned fish and 540 metric tonnes of high protein cheese. A beggar of course has little or no choice and one wonders how dried milk and cheese can alleviate food shortages. In fact the WFP intends that their allocation must be distributed to nursing mothers, mal-nourished and needy children and elderly persons but what will actually happen? Ever since the PNDC came to power, it has consistently and efficiently solicited for food aid from overseas donors, and it is a trend which might not change for several years to come.
The old order no doubt has changed. yielding place to new... but who would have ever dreamt that Ghana with a good harvest of nearly 900,000 metric tonnes of rice, maize, millet and guinea corn in the Bernasko years of 1974/75 of which nearly 15,000 tonnes were exported, will now be reduced to a beggar nation, smiling now at the sight of dried milk and cheese. Like my grandmother said, the fetish dance has passed on leaving spinning bodies to satisfy the rhythm of the drums!
There are many people who see Food Aid as just a drop in an ocean of hunger and despair among many devel- oping countries. Just a couple of days ago, James Stove of the Canadian High Commission, in an address to students of the Accra Workers College on 'Canadian contribution towards the solution of the food problems of Commonwealth Africa' said: "It is detrimental for developing countries to rely on food aid although it is a sad fact that food aid represents the surpluses of the output of developed countries without which most poorer countries of the world will starve".
This is very true and something which Kwesi Botchwey and the likes of him have to take note if they do not intend to make appeals for food aid an annual affair or ritual and a regular feature of the nation's economic programme.
Food Aid In Africa
According to information received from the World Food Programme regional office in Accra the WFP will provide $16 million worth of emergency food aid to six African countries.1. Some 271,000 drought victims in Northern Ghana will receive 13,000 tonnes of cereals worth $4.6 million over a four-month period.
2. In Upper Volta, 10,000 tonnes of cereals worth $2.9 million will go to 278,000 people over a period of three months.
3.In the Gambia, where successive seasons of low rainfall have impaired food production, 7,200 tonnes of rice worth $1.9 million will go to 200,000 people over a period of three months. 4. Food aid comprising 250,000 tonnes of cereals and 500 tonnes of milk worth $1.29 million will go to 53,000 people in Niger.
5. Somalia is to receive 4,900 tonnes of maize and 2,700 tonnes of milk all worth nearly $4 million for distribution to refugees.
6. 40,000 Rwandan refugees being resettled in South West Uganda will receive 2,700 tonnes of supplies for six months.
In a recent interview in Accra, Mr Jean-Pierre Noblet, the WFP representative in Accra noted that countries like Ghana which have acute transportation problems may have to sell some of the donated food items to generate local currency to meet the cost of internal transportation of the food items to where they are needed. In any case in Ghana, those items which are supposed to be distributed free of charge usually end up on the market at very high prices.
