An adept way I can present the food value chain for your understanding, is to ask you to think about how food moves from the farm to your mouth.  Drawing a line to track that progression is what we would call the food value chain.

There are many facets of the food value chain; Production, value addition distribution and many more. However, the article will focus on food production. The food production industry is essential to the entire chain and at the heart of climate change effects.

The food production industry is critical to every country’s economy and livelihood. A significant portion of the economy in countries like China come from agriculture. The same said of Ghana. Unfortunately, the World Food Programme has noted that less than one percent of Ghana’s cultivated land is irrigated. Meaning farmers depend heavily on rain to feed agriculture.

 Many staple foods produced annually depend on the long known understanding of the duration of the wet and dry seasons in Ghana to forecast crop seasons. Thus, making crop production vulnerable to climate change. During the recent years, Ghana has been experiencing a reduction in rainfall and also climate variability. These variations make it difficult for farmers to predict rainfall and properly plan crop seasons.  This is definitely a threat to food security.

To be continued.