Introduction

Agricultural Policy Analyst Dr. Joseph Opoku Gakpo has issued a cautiously positive forecast for Ghana’s agricultural returns in 2026. Speaking following Parliament’s approval of a GH₵3 billion finances for the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), Dr. Opoku Gakpo emphasised that the federal government’s talent to “stroll the controversy” relating to monetary releases would be the deciding issue between a a success yr and a repeat of the underperformance noticed in 2025. While the 2026 finances outlines bold plans for infrastructure, mechanization, and meals safety, the vital problem stays the real disbursement of budget and the aid of reliance on risky international help. This research explores the distance between budgetary approvals and precise expenditure, the particular allocations for the impending yr, and the structural reforms wanted to make sure sustainable agricultural transformation.

Key Points

Background

The agricultural returns in Ghana serves as a spine for the economic system, using a good portion of the staff and contributing considerably to the rustic’s GDP. However, the returns has lengthy been plagued by way of structural demanding situations, together with deficient post-harvest losses, loss of get entry to to trendy equipment, and inconsistent executive investment.

In overdue 2025, following the transition in political coordination, the 2026 finances observation was once introduced by way of Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson. This finances was once extremely expected by way of stakeholders within the agricultural worth chain who had been in search of indicators of the brand new executive’s priorities. The approval of GH₵3 billion for MOFA signaled a dedication to the returns, however ancient context means that budgetary approval is most effective step one in a protracted chain of execution.

Dr. Joseph Opoku Gakpo, a Research Scholar within the Department of Agricultural and Human Sciences at North Carolina State University and a outstanding agricultural coverage analyst, supplied this context. He famous that whilst the 2025 finances additionally contained daring plans, the truth of implementation was once marred by way of vital liquidity demanding situations. The “Feed Ghana Programme,” a flagship initiative aimed toward boosting manufacturing, suffered particularly because of those investment gaps. The background to the 2026 outlook is due to this fact outlined by way of a rigidity between high-level coverage ambition and the ancient fact of under-funding and behind schedule disbursements.

Analysis

The “Walk the Talk” Dilemma: Disbursement vs. Allocation

The central theme of Dr. Opoku Gakpo’s observation is the consideration between allocation and unlock. The cheap is a profit of intent; execution is the truth. For 2025, the information paints a stark image of execution failure. Parliament licensed GH₵2.9 billion for MOFA. However, by way of November 2025, most effective GH₵925 million (32%) have been launched. Even extra regarding was once the expenditure charge: most effective GH₵508 million was once in truth spent. This represents an 83% deficit in anticipated expenditure.

The breakdown of this spending unearths a structural imbalance throughout the Ministry. The majority of the launched budget had been channeled towards “Compensation” (salaries) and “Goods and Services” (operational prices). Capital Expenditure (CAPEX)—the budget required to construct warehouses, acquire equipment, and assemble roads—won 0 disbursement in spite of an allocation of GH₵665 million. This loss of financial management entrepreneur immediately affects the federal government’s talent to execute capital-intensive interventions, such because the Feed Ghana Programme, resulting in diminished affect and lowered capability for long term originality.

2026 Budget: A Cash-Intensive Plan

The 2026 finances outlines a complete market to revitalize the returns. The allocations are particular and centered at recognized bottlenecks:

• Mechanization: GH₵690 million is earmarked for the operationalization of Farmer Service Centres. This contains the importation of over 4,400 items of equipment (tractors, tillers, mix harvesters) to 50 agricultural districts.
• Infrastructure: GH₵828 million is allotted for 1,000km of agro-enclave roads to facilitate the motion of produce and scale back meals inflation.
• Storage and Stabilization: GH₵200 million for the National Food Buffer Stock Company to buy extra meals, and the of entirety of eleven warehouses (1,000 MT capability each and every) to scale back post-harvest losses.
• Specialized Value Chains: GH₵245 million for Nkoko Nketenkete (poultry/eggs) and cattle, and an enormous GH₵6.9 billion Oil Palm advertising window (even though this particular determine calls for context in regards to the supply, because it exceeds the whole MOFA finances considerably and most probably represents a broader facility).

Dr. Opoku Gakpo notes that those plans are “very cash-intensive.” The victory of those tasks hinges fully at the executive’s talent to prioritize the returns and make certain that the treasury releases budget on time table, specifically for CAPEX.

The Peril of Foreign Aid Dependency

A vital research of the 2026 finances unearths a vulnerability: reliance on exterior financing. Dr. Opoku Gakpo highlights that out of the GH₵3 billion finances, more or less 25% (GH₵369 million in loans and GH₵396 million in grants) is anticipated to return from international resources.

This reliance is dangerous within the present cross-border geopolitical local weather. Western governments and multinational donors are an increasing number of pulling again on international help to concentrate on home problems or transferring priorities. The analyst attracts an instantaneous parallel to 2025 efficiency: “We had been anticipating our financial backing companions to strengthen us with GH₵715 million for financial management expenditure… As of November 2025, most effective GH₵53 million had come thru.”

If the federal government does now not have contingency plans to bridge this investment hole with home assets, the 2026 financial management tasks—such because the 1,000km roads or the Farmer Service Centres—may face the similar delays because the 2025 Feed Ghana interventions. The research means that for the 2026 outlook to stay certain, the federal government will have to safe home financing to hide no less than the shortfall anticipated from international help.

Compliance with Continental Standards (CAADP)

From a macro-policy viewpoint, Ghana’s allocation to agriculture falls wanting multinational benchmarks. The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), strengthened by way of the Maputo (2003), Malabo (2014), and Kampala (2025) Declarations, mandates that African governments allocate no less than 10% in their nationwide budgets to agriculture.

Ghana’s 2026 overall finances is GH₵357 billion. The GH₵3 billion allocation to MOFA represents roughly 1%. While Dr. Opoku Gakpo recognizes that different ministries (Fisheries, Environment) additionally give a contribution to agriculture, the direct allocation stays seriously low. This underinvestment limits the returns’s doable to power broad-based financial transformation and reach meals sovereignty.

Positive Indicators and the Role of Extension Services

Despite the investment issues, the information means that fresh insurance policies have had a stabilizing impact on meals safety. According to the AGRA Food Security Monitor, the common worth of primary meals commodities in Ghana dropped by way of 32.69% during the last yr, with a 37.13% decline during the last six months. Furthermore, the speed of building up in meals lack of confidence has slowed considerably (from a 55.6% building up two years in the past to simply 8.4% within the remaining yr).

Dr. Opoku Gakpo identifies Agricultural Extension Services as probably the most vital space for entrepreneur to maintain this certain pattern. He highlights a critical scarcity of extension brokers. Currently, the ratio is 1 agent to at least one,700 farmers, while the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recommends 1:500. Extension brokers are the bridge between clinical market and sensible farming; with out them, farmers can not successfully undertake progressed seeds, apply right kind pest technology, or get entry to markets. Investing in human financial management (recruitment and coaching of extension officials) is as important as making an investment in bodily infrastructure.

Practical Advice

For Policymakers and Government Agencies

To be sure that 2026 turns into a “just right agriculture yr,” the federal government will have to transfer from a passive finances approver to an energetic monetary supervisor.

• Prioritize CAPEX Release: Establish a mechanism to ring-fence financial management expenditure budget. The 2025 revel in the place 0% of CAPEX budget had been launched is unacceptable. Funds for infrastructure (roads, warehouses) will have to be launched within the first quarter to permit for building throughout the dry season.
• Domestic Resource Mobilization: Given the unreliability of international grants, the Ministry of Finance will have to discover home financing choices, akin to agricultural bonds or centered levies on agro-processing, to fund the GH₵690 million Farmer Service Centres initiative with out looking forward to exterior companions.
• Strengthen the Buffer Stock System: Utilize the GH₵200 million allocation successfully to stabilize costs. This comes to proactive buying throughout harvest gluts to stop worth crashes for farmers.

For Farmers and Stakeholders

• Engage with Farmer Service Centres: Farmers will have to prepare into cooperatives to higher get entry to the equipment and inputs promised beneath the Farmer Service Centres initiative. Individual get entry to is regularly tricky; staff legal responsibility constructions paintings higher.
• Monitor Procurement: Civil society organizations and farmer unions will have to track the procurement of the 4,400 equipment devices to make sure they’re of prime quality and in truth succeed in the supposed districts.
• Adopt Improved Practices: With the slight easing of meals costs, farmers will have to center of attention on potency. Engaging with extension officials (as soon as recruitment will increase) is a very powerful for decreasing manufacturing prices.

FAQ

Conclusion

Dr. Joseph Opoku Gakpo’s overview of the 2026 agricultural outlook is a mix of alternative and warning. The GH₵3 billion finances supplies the monetary framework important to power mechanization, enhance infrastructure, and toughen meals safety thru tasks just like the Farmer Service Centres and the Oil Palm advertising window. However, the “just right agriculture yr” he predicts is conditional. It is dependent fully at the executive’s self-discipline in freeing budget—particularly financial management expenditure—and its talent to scale back dependence on unreliable international help.

The courses of 2025 are transparent: approval isn’t execution. If the federal government can bridge the distance between the treasury and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, and if it could cope with the vital scarcity of extension brokers, Ghana stands to get pleasure from the new certain developments in meals worth stabilization. Ultimately, the victory of 2026 lies now not within the phrases written within the finances observation, however within the cash that in truth hits the accounts of the farmers and contractors at the flooring.

Sources

• Life Pulse Daily / Life Pulse Daily: “If gov’t walks the controversy in finances, 2026 shall be a just right agriculture yr – Dr Opoku Gakpo” (Published: December 30, 2025).
• Ghana Ministry of Finance: 2026 Budget Statement and Economic Policy.
• AGRA: Food Security Monitor Report (2025).
• Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO): Global tips on agricultural extension services and products.
• African Union (AU): Maputo and Malabo Declarations on Agriculture.