Why Do Ghana’s Agri Plans Keep Falling Apart?

Every few years, a new administration in Ghana rolls out an agricultural masterplan with its own slogans, logos, and targets. We’ve had “Operation Feed Yourself,” “Youth in Agriculture,” “Planting for Food and Jobs,” and more. Each one comes with speeches, fanfare, and pilot sites. Yet when the dust settles, many farmers still wait for subsidised inputs, extension officers remain overstretched, and warehouses rust beneath the sun.

The truth? It’s not always about money or technical know-how. Often, it’s because every new government resets the chessboard. Continuity is the rarest crop in Ghanaian agriculture. We plan with excitement but abandon with silence. As a result, the agricultural sector ends up more cluttered with defunct policies than with crops in the ground.

How political cycles derail agri strategy

Political discontinuity is a side effect of democracy. I recently had a conversation where I told those present that whatever comes with democracy, we must not throw the baby out with the bathwater. We must protect our right to vote, our right to peace, and our belief in a functioning constitution, warts and all.

Political discontinuity represents a structural flaw within the remarkable phenomenon we call democracy, where the majority of Ghanaians wish for one leader today and another leader tomorrow, as is our right. Nevertheless, Ghana’s development planning is excessively linked to electoral cycles. A new government enters, and suddenly, ongoing programmes are either renamed, repackaged, or quietly defunded. Extension officers are redirected. Donor partners become hesitant. Institutional memory is lost.

Consider this: food distribution centres and grain silos have been built across the country, some since the 1980s. Yet many lie unused or repurposed. Not because they were poor ideas, but because follow-through was lost once the team that built them left office. In some cases, entire ministries shift focus midstream.

Even worse, new appointees often lack access to the records and systems used by their predecessors. The digital continuity we need for monitoring, evaluation, and even simple procurement is suddenly absent. This issue often has nothing to do with the new administration’s operational capacities and expertise; as I mentioned earlier, it’s not always about money or technical know-how. In fact, more often than not, it’s a ticking timebomb left under the table for the new administrations to endure. After a couple of cycles, it then becomes the norm, a form of systemic amnesia that is triggered with every new swearing-in.

The result is a sector trapped in rinse-and-repeat mode. Ambitious plans are launched, results are promised, and then silence follows.

The toll on farmers and food systems

For farmers, this means chronic unpredictability. One season, fertiliser subsidies are available; the next, they’re missing or delayed. Prices crash because of unregulated imports, then rebound wildly due to inadequate storage or transport. I adore watermelon smoothies. One day it’s ten cedis per melon; the next few weeks it’s thirty to forty cedis. I can never tell. Even my g?b? is suffering because ripe plantain is in short supply now, and when I manage to get some, sheesh!

Unionised farmer groups, originally intended to coordinate production and negotiate pricing power, have nearly disappeared in many regions or are no longer as effective. Without these structures, aggregation is weaker, market access is more challenging, and rural producers find themselves facing urban traders alone.

Meanwhile, young people trained under previous agricultural initiatives graduate without a support system to assist them in accessing land, finance, or markets. As a result, momentum dissipates. Why? Well, “you belonged to that party, so…” Harsh, but true.

Abeg, don’t punish me for expressing myself freely. I miss writing freely. I’m merely venting here about a gap in the system within a sector where I work; that’s all this is. Alright, moving on.

Women farmers face even greater challenges. Despite being the backbone of Ghana’s rural labour force, they have limited access to land, extension services, and credit. When programmes fail, the fallout is often harsher for them, undermining both gender equity and food production.

Food systems rely on consistency. Seeds, fertiliser, training, financing, harvesting, and transport must adhere to a predictable rhythm. When that rhythm is disrupted by political interference or insufficient funding, the entire cycle is adversely affected.

It’s not a lack of ideas. It’s a lack of memory.

Ghana is not lacking in vision. From the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) to Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ), many of these concepts are sound. The failure lies in execution and our inability to create apolitical institutions with lasting mandates.

Other countries have learned this lesson. For instance, Rwanda shields its agricultural policy from political meddling by anchoring it in multi-year development compacts that endure beyond elections. Kenya’s devolution process has localised agri-financing, granting counties greater control while maintaining national coordination. Execution is never perfect but it’s a pretty solid example. I checked.

Ghana, by contrast, tends to centralise plans but decentralise responsibility, a mix that makes accountability elusive. Everyone is in charge, so no one is. This is a broad statement yet largely accurate. Allow me to provide an example.

Most national development strategies in Ghana, whether PFJ, One District One Factory (1D1F), or even parts of the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP), are designed and coordinated from Accra. Ministries hold the purse strings and steer the big picture.

BUT, Implementation often falls to district assemblies, regional directorates, or local-level agents who don’t have full autonomy, reliable funding, or a say in the initial design. So when results are poor, there’s a finger-pointing loop between the centre and the ground.

Three things that must change

Institutional Independence: We need an autonomous Ghana Agricultural Development Authority (GADA) (or Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA)) with a protected budget, long-term strategy, and legal insulation from electoral whims. Similar to the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund), but focused on food systems. GADA or GIDA could be mandated to coordinate all agri-related initiatives, track data, ensure accountability, and serve as the institutional bridge across administrations.

Data Infrastructure: A national digital agri hub that tracks farmer output, soil data, subsidy access, and warehousing. This must outlive any one ministry’s term. Our own MIG Impact Platform is a modest start in this direction. Accurate and real-time data is the backbone of smart agriculture. Without it, planning becomes guesswork and policymaking remains reactive.

Bipartisan Compact: The two major parties must formally and publicly agree on a national food security roadmap that each will honour while in power. This can be linked to SDG 2 and local employment outcomes to maintain global alignment and local relevance. Such a compact would safeguard long-term goals from short-term politics and enable international partners to invest with greater confidence.

Let’s finish what we start

The Ghanaian farmer is resilient. But resilience has a cost when it’s required in every season. I am not writing this from a partisan standpoint. I’m just saying let’s finish what we start. And more importantly, let’s create systems that remember, so we don’t have to keep relearning the same hard lessons every four/eight/twelve/sixteen years.

Only when continuity becomes the norm rather than the exception will Ghana’s agriculture truly flourish.

I hope you found this article both insightful and enjoyable. Your feedback is greatly valued and appreciated. I welcome any suggestions for topics you would like me to cover or provide insights on. You can schedule a meeting with me through my Calendly at www.calendly.com/maxwellampong. Alternatively, connect with me through various channels on my Linktree page at www.linktr.ee/themax. Subscribe to the ‘Entrepreneur In You’ newsletter here: https://lnkd.in/d-hgCVPy.

I wish you a highly productive and successful week ahead!

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The author, Dr. Maxwell Ampong, serves as the CEO of Maxwell Investments Group. He is also an Honorary Curator at the Ghana National Museum and the Official Business Advisor with Ghana’s largest agricultural trade union under Ghana’s Trade Union Congress (TUC). Founder of WellMax Inclusive Insurance and WellMax Micro-Credit, Dr. Ampong writes on relevant economic topics and provides general perspective pieces. ‘Entrepreneur In You’ operates under the auspices of the Africa School of Entrepreneurship, an initiative of Maxwell Investments Group.

Disclaimer: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author, Dr. Maxwell Ampong, and do not necessarily reflect the official policy, position, or beliefs of Maxwell Investments Group or any of its affiliates. Any references to policy or regulation reflect the author’s interpretation and are not intended to represent the formal stance of Maxwell Investments Group. This content is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, or investment advice. Readers should seek independent advice before making any decisions based on this material. Maxwell Investments Group assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions in the content or for any actions taken based on the information provided.

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