Ghana's Vice President charts ambitious path to food sovereignty at World Food Prize summit
By V. L. K. Djokoto
Jane Opoku-Agyemang tells global agriculture leaders that Africa's most populous anglophone nation is ready to end its $2bn annual food import dependency
Vice President Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang stood before the closing session of the Norman E. Borlaug International Dialogue with a pointed message: Ghana will no longer accept a system where it imports more than $2 billion worth of food annually whilst nearly 40% of its population works in agriculture.
Delivering the keynote address at the prestigious gathering—which concluded with the presentation of the 2025 World Food Prize to Brazilian scientist Dr. Marieangela Hungria—Ghana's Vice President invoked the legacy of Norman Borlaug himself. "Dr. Borlaug was convinced that no child should go to bed hungry," she told the audience of policymakers, agronomists and development experts. "He must remain a moral compass for us."
It was a rallying cry that combined moral urgency with economic pragmatism, and it signalled Ghana's determination to fundamentally reimagine its relationship with food production under President John Dramani Mahama's administration.
The paradox of plenty
The figures Opoku-Agyemang presented highlight a paradox familiar across much of sub-Saharan Africa: a country blessed with favourable climate and agricultural capacity nonetheless spending vast sums importing food it could grow itself. For Ghana, that annual $2 billion represents not just foreign exchange flowing outward, but jobs uncreated, value uncaptured, and potential unrealised.
The government's response is the Feed Ghana Programme, an ambitious coordinated initiative spanning 22 commodity value chains—from grains and legumes to tree crops and livestock. Unlike previous agricultural programmes that have come and gone across the continent, Feed Ghana is explicitly market-driven, addressing what Opoku-Agyemang characterised as "systemic weaknesses" in irrigation, storage, processing, digital integration and market access.
Complementing this is the Grow24 Programme, nested within the administration's broader 24-Hour Economy initiative. The programme seeks to modernise agricultural value chains, support agro-manufacturing, and position Ghanaian products for export markets—a shift from the extraction of raw materials that has characterised African economies for generations.
Women at the margins
Yet Opoku-Agyemang was equally candid about the structural inequities that constrain agricultural productivity. Women constitute more than half of Ghana's agricultural workforce, she noted, but face persistent barriers to land ownership, credit access, technology and training.
"Our Women's Development Bank will help correct these inequities," she said, outlining a deliberate effort to channel resources toward women farmers who have long operated at the margins of formal agricultural systems. The government is also investing in youth-led agritech ventures, mechanisation services and digital market platforms—recognition that transforming agriculture requires not just seeds and fertiliser, but connectivity and innovation.
The emphasis on gender equity and youth engagement reflects a growing consensus among development economists: that Africa's demographic dividend can only be realised if young people—and particularly young women—see viable futures in modernised agriculture rather than viewing farming as a relic of the past.
AfCFTA and the value chain revolution
Ghana's agricultural ambitions are inseparable from its continental positioning. With the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) secretariat headquartered in Accra, the country sees itself as uniquely positioned to build regional value chains and scale agro-exports across Africa's emerging single market.
"Ghana is steadily shifting from exporting raw materials to producing finished goods that capture real value," Opoku-Agyemang said, extending an invitation to investors, governments, universities and development banks to partner with Ghana in this transformation.
Following her keynote, the Vice President engaged in what she described as "a most interesting fireside chat" with Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, who recently completed his decade-long tenure as President of the African Development Bank. The conversation centred on Ghana's development approach—a dialogue between a scholar-turned-policymaker and one of Africa's most influential development finance leaders.
A Brazilian lesson
The ceremony's centrepiece was the presentation of the 2025 World Food Prize to Dr. Marieangela Hungria, whose pioneering research on biological nitrogen fixation has helped Brazil become an agricultural superpower. Opoku-Agyemang assisted in presenting the award—a symbolic moment linking Brazil's agricultural transformation with Ghana's aspirations.
Brazil's trajectory from food importer to agricultural giant offers both inspiration and instruction. Its success was built on sustained investment in agricultural research, infrastructure and farmer support—precisely the systemic approach Ghana now seeks to replicate.
"The fight against hunger demands thoughtful action," Opoku-Agyemang concluded. "We must run our leg of the race with conviction so that Africa becomes food secure, a net exporter of food, a centre of innovation, and a beacon of peace."
Whether Ghana can translate that conviction into the sustained, coordinated effort required to transform its agricultural sector remains to be seen. But in Des Moines, at least, Vice President Opoku-Agyemang made clear that the Mahama administration views food sovereignty not as aspiration, but as imperative.