Technical officers at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) are finalising modalities to transport farm produce from farmgates to Accra. The produce, meant for “agriculture market” announced last week by the sector Minister, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, will help reduce the cost of food and ensure availability in the national capital. Similar interventions will be done in all regional capitals. A source at the Ministry told the Ghana News Agency that a technical committee was discussing effective ways to transport the produce and “essential inputs” for the initiative. The source said the Ministry was also considering the option of transporting farmers to Accra for direct sales. It said the “agriculture market” was likely to start in December to ensure abundance of food during the yuletide. Dr Afriyie Akoto at an interactive session with farmers and inputs dealers at Sefwi Wiawso in the Western North Region last week, noted that the prices of foodstuffs increased to about 10 folds when transported to the capital. The situation, he said, was creating artificial food shortage in the country. “The prices of food in Greater Accra are so high. One of you said the price of plantain from the farm gate to Sefwi Wiawso here increases about 3 folds. How about when they are taken to Accra? “It increases in about 10 folds. So those in Accra think there is no food but there is a lot of food as you know. We only have to ensure that we get the price reduced for the people in Accra,” he stated. The Year-on-Year inflation rate for September 2022 based on the 16 administrative regions was 37.2 per cent. The transition focuses on the pricing index and rate of inflation with a new reference period of 2021. The computational considerations transitioning from 10 to 16 administrative regions are readjustment of regional weights, replacement and inclusion of markets and outlets, variation in price reterence years and representative of items across regions. Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim, the Government Statistician, said for the month of September 2022, the general price level was 37.2 per cent higher than in September 2021. He said the month-on-month inflation between August 2022 and September 2022 was 2.0 per cent. Mr Annin said Eastern Region had the highest regional inflation rate of 47.1 per cent, while the Upper East Region had the lowest regional inflation rate of 22.9 per cent. He said the year-on-year inflation for September 2022 had domestic inflation of 35.8 per cent and imported inflation of 40. 7 per cent, food inflation of 37.8 per cent and non-food inflation of 36.8 per cent. The 2.0 per cent month-on-month inflation for September 2022, comprised of food inflation of 2.2 per cent and non-food inflation of 1.7 per cent.