The Public Relations Officer (PRO) for the Ministry of Agriculture says all information provided by the sector Minister, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, are credible.
According to Bagbara Tanko, before the Agric Minister comments on the status of the sector, he confirms data provided to him with the relevant stakeholders.
“Before he says anything, he makes sure the figures given him are from the right source. The Minister has always spoken with figures from the right source,” he said.
In view of this, Mr Tanko has refuted the assertion by Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Sulemana Braimah, that the Agric Minister puts out untruths about production capacity and general information on the sector.
The PRO said: “I strongly disagree with what he (Mr Braimah) said. The Honourable Minister will not just speak in a vacuum. He has his statistics and Research Directorate.”
According to Mr Braimah, “The Minister himself has consistently been putting out false information. He’s always been exposed for the wrong information that is put out there but it appears that it doesn’t deter him.
Citing an example, Mr Braimah said that “if you take our soya beans production, the Minister on February 3rd in a meeting with Tony Blair put out false information that before 2017 when this government came to power, Ghana was producing less than a 100, 000 metric tonnes – which was false.
“And then he went on to say that since coming to power, soya bean production has increased to a quarter of a million tonne which again is false because the latest information by the Ministry showed that Ghana was not doing more than 210,000 metric tonnes as at 2020 “
Barbara Tanko, noted that the Ministry will engage with Mr Braimah to resolve the issue of distinct data on the sector’s growth.
“We are yet to look at it and maybe contact him, get details of what he says we are not consistent with,” he said.
