The deaths of eight Ghanaian tomato traders in Burkina Faso have exposed a vulnerability that goes far deeper than a single road in northern West Africa. Ghana is spending over $22 million a year importing a crop it has the land, climate, and labour to produce at home, and the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG) says that must change now.
In a statement issued Wednesday, February 18, PFAG said Ghana imports more than 90 percent of its tomatoes from Burkina Faso alone, against a backdrop where national consumption stands at roughly 800,000 metric tonnes annually but domestic production reaches only 370,000 to 420,000 metric tonnes. The gap, the association argued, is not a natural resource constraint. It is a policy failure.
PFAG traced the shortfall to several structural weaknesses: over-reliance on rain-fed agriculture, average farm yields of just 7.5 metric tonnes per hectare, and post-harvest losses running at 30 to 50 percent due to inadequate storage, weak processing capacity, and poor rural road networks. Together, these factors have made Ghanaian tomato farming chronically uncompetitive.
The association called on government to move immediately on several fronts, beginning with irrigation. It urged the completion of the Irrigation for Wealth Programme and the Pwalugu Multi-Purpose Dam, alongside the deployment of boreholes and subsidised solar-powered water pumps to enable year-round cultivation. It also recommended the creation of dedicated agricultural enclaves for high-demand vegetables, supported by road, power, and water infrastructure capable of attracting private investment.
On productivity, PFAG called for support to research institutions developing disease-resistant and high-yielding tomato varieties, and a national post-harvest strategy covering expanded cold-chain facilities, upgraded feeder roads, and tomato processing factories in key production zones.
The association drew attention to a broader pattern of farmer distress, noting that producers of rice, maize, soya, yam, and cassava have also suffered losses from market gluts and feel abandoned despite repeated government assurances. It urged immediate relief through direct government purchases and strategic crop storage.
Dr. Dominic Oduro Antwi, President of the Ghana India Trade Advisory Chamber (GITAC), endorsed the call for import substitution, framing it as both an economic and a security imperative. “West African trade agreements allow goods to move freely across borders, but they do not protect the traders themselves,” he said, arguing that reducing dependence on imports from high-risk zones is not optional but essential.
