Your Excellency,
I write to you at a critical moment in Ghana’s agricultural transformation journey, one that demands not just incremental reform, but bold, system-level leadership.
The crisis in Ghana’s tomato sector, particularly in the Upper East Region, is often framed as a production or agronomic challenge. However, I respectfully submit that this framing is misleading.
Ghana’s tomato crisis is not about agronomy. It is about institutional failure, flawed market design, and a deep political economy misalignment.
For decades, the Upper East Region once stood as a cornerstone of Ghana’s dry-season vegetable production. Supported by irrigation schemes such as Tono and Vea, and anchored by agro-industrial investments like the Pwalugu Tomato Factory, the region supplied significant volumes of tomatoes to domestic markets. This system was not perfect, but it worked because it integrated production with processing and market access.
The collapse of this integrated system marked the beginning of a long decline. The closure of processing facilities removed a critical market stabilizer. Farmers were left to navigate volatile markets characterized by seasonal gluts, weak bargaining power, and high post-harvest losses. The result was predictable: falling incomes, rising indebtedness, and gradual disinvestment in tomato production.
Your Excellency, what followed was not merely a market gap; it was a structural transformation of the value chain, one that Ghana failed to anticipate or manage.
Neighbouring Burkina Faso stepped into this vacuum with a more coordinated and market-driven approach. Through the strategic organization of supply chains led by intermediaries such as market queens and “lead boys”, Burkina Faso effectively integrated production, aggregation, and distribution into a competitive regional system. Today, Ghana depends heavily on imported fresh tomatoes from Burkina Faso, even during periods when domestic production is high.
This paradox of import dependence in the face of local production potential highlights a fundamental truth: efficient supply chains, not just productive farms, determine competitiveness in modern agriculture.
As we speak, Ghana is effectively exporting jobs, incomes, and economic value to neighbouring countries. Conservative estimates suggest that the country spends hundreds of millions of dollars annually on tomato imports. This is capital that could otherwise circulate within our rural economies, supporting farmers, traders, processors, transporters, and youth entrepreneurs.
At the same time, vast agricultural infrastructure within our borders remains underutilized. The Tono and Vea irrigation schemes are operating below their potential capacity. The White Volta Basin, once a vibrant hub of dry-season farming, lies largely untapped. The Tamne Irrigation Scheme, initiated with the promise of expanding irrigated agriculture, remains incomplete years after its commencement.
Perhaps, most concerning is the human dimension of this crisis. Across the Upper East Region and beyond, thousands of young people are searching for meaningful economic opportunities. Many are willing to engage in agriculture, not as a subsistence activity, but as a viable enterprise. Yet they face systemic barriers: lack of access to land and water, absence of structured markets, limited financing, and high production risks.
Your Excellency, this is not a mere agricultural issue; it is a national development challenge. It intersects with youth unemployment, rural poverty, food security, and economic sovereignty.
However, within this crisis lies a powerful opportunity.
Recent policy shifts in Burkina Faso, including restrictions on fresh tomato exports to prioritize domestic value addition, signal a changing regional landscape. Ghana now has a strategic window to reposition itself—not as a passive importer, but as a competitive producer and processor within West Africa.
To seize this opportunity, I respectfully propose a shift from fragmented interventions to a coordinated, value chain transformation agenda anchored on three pillars:
1. Rebuilding Market Confidence through Agro-Industrial Anchors
At the heart of the tomato crisis is the absence of reliable markets. Reviving and modernizing agro-processing capacity particularly in strategic locations such as Pwalugu will provide a guaranteed off-take system for farmers. This must be complemented by structured contract farming arrangements that align production with processing demand.
2. Unlocking Irrigation Potential for Year-Round Production
Ghana has already invested in irrigation infrastructure; the challenge is optimization and expansion. Completing the Tamne Irrigation Scheme, rehabilitating Tono and Vea, and promoting groundwater-based irrigation systems will enable consistent, climate-resilient production. This is essential for stabilizing supply and reducing seasonal price volatility.
3. Empowering Youth through High-Value Agricultural Enterprises
A new generation of farmers must be supported through targeted programmes that combine technology, finance, and market access. The promotion of greenhouse systems integrated with borehole irrigation and extension support offers a pathway to high productivity and year-round cultivation. With the right policy support, thousands of youth can be engaged in commercially viable agriculture.
Your Excellency, these interventions must be supported by broader institutional reforms:
Strengthening market coordination and transparency
Regulating and integrating intermediaries into formal value chains
Expanding access to affordable credit and agricultural insurance
Introducing price stabilization mechanisms to protect farmers from extreme volatility
A Call to Leadership
The transformation of Ghana’s tomato sector will not occur by chance. It requires deliberate policy choices, strategic investments, and strong political commitment.
With decisive leadership, Ghana can:
Save hundreds of millions of dollars in import expenditure;
Create thousands of decent jobs for young people;
Revitalize rural economies and reduce poverty and
Build a resilient and sovereign food system capable of withstanding external shocks.
The Upper East Region, once the pride of Ghana’s dry-season agriculture, still holds immense potential. Its land, water resources, and human capital remain intact. What is required is a renewed vision, one that aligns infrastructure, markets, and institutions toward a common goal.
Give the Upper East Region a second opportunity and it will not only feed the nation, but will also restore Ghana’s dignity in regional agricultural competitiveness.
Conclusion
Your Excellency, history will judge our generation not by the challenges we inherited, but by the solutions we implemented. The tomato crisis presents an opportunity to demonstrate that Ghana can learn, adapt, and lead.
I trust that under your leadership, this opportunity will not be missed.
Respectfully submitted,
Anthony S. Boatbil
Irrigation Agronomist & Food Systems Specialist: asboatbil@gmail.com
Source: Media Without Borders/mwbonline.org/Ghana/West Africa
