Chamber of Agribusiness Ghana Urges National Agric Database to Protect Farmers and Traders

The Chief Executive Officer of the Chamber of Agribusiness Ghana, Anthony Morrison, has called on government to establish a comprehensive national agricultural database to regulate imports and safeguard local farmers from market distortions.

His appeal follows reports that Ghanaian tomato traders were attacked by insurgents in Burkina Faso while sourcing produce — an incident that has heightened concerns about the risks traders face when travelling outside the country to secure agricultural goods.

Speaking on Citi Breakfast Show on February 17, Morrison said Ghana’s continued dependence on imported agricultural commodities — even when local production exists — reflects a structural policy gap that could be resolved through data-driven planning.

According to him, a well-structured agricultural information system would enable authorities to regulate imports more effectively, empower local producers, stabilise markets, and reduce the dangers traders face when crossing borders for supplies.

He explained that the Chamber has long advocated the creation of a system to track production levels nationwide and guide decisions on import permits.

“The Chamber has proposed over the last 10 years that, as a country, we have come of age, and there is a need for us to build an agriculture information database where we know how many fields are under production for every commodity.

So if somebody comes to apply for a permit to import a certain quantity of a product, we use the database to tell the person that if you are importing 50,000 tonnes, the database should be able to tell you that in the next month, these are the quantities that are going to be harvested locally so your 50,000 import permit cannot be approved.

Because the problem we are having is that by the time crops are harvested, the imported ones too are in and that is where the market disruptions and all the post-harvest losses start happening.”

Morrison emphasised that a national agriculture database would strengthen food security planning, reduce post-harvest losses, and create a more predictable market environment for farmers and traders alike.