The 3-week period-lockdown implemented by government during the height of the pandemic last year, caused the closure of 30.7 percent or 42,396 agribusiness firms in the country.
Of the 42,396 agribusiness firms closed down during the lockdown period, closure of 20.9 percent or 8,860 agribusiness firms were directly due to the lockdown, with the lockdown facilitating or enabling the closure of the remaining 33,536 agribusiness firms.
According to the June 2021 Summary Report on the Impact of Covid-19 on Agribusinesses in Ghana released by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), an estimated 16,091 agribusiness firms representing 11.6 percent of agribusinesses in the country closed down due to the lockdown, still remained closed after the lifting of the lockdown measures.
Per the report, agribusiness firms in the service and industry sectors were most affected by the lockdown compared with agribusiness firms in the agriculture sector, adding that agribusiness firms in the services sector were however, the first to experience recovery with the most reopened firms.
”Subsequently, during the post lockdown periods, agribusiness firms in the service sector experienced faster recovery with the most reopened firms. Thus, while closed down agribusiness firms in the service sector reduced by 11 percentage points between the lockdown period and post lock down period, barely about 7 percent of agribusiness firms in each of the other sectors (industry and agriculture sectors) opened after been closed due to lockdown,” stated the report.
The closure of agribusinesses in the country due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in the layoffs of some 51,111 employees, with the number of laidoff employees increasing to 78,412 in the post-lockdown period.
Also, workers with reduced wages increased from 175,255 during the lockdown to 267,211 in the post lockdown period.
According to the GSS, the pandemic resulted in demand and supply shocks for agribusiness firms in the country. About 67.6 percent of agribusiness firms reported a decrease in average monthly sales by 48.8 percent during the lockdown.
Post the lockdown, as much as 61.5 percent of agribusiness firms still report that average monthly sales have declined by 41.2 percent relative to the same period a year ago.
While only 11.7 percent of agriculture firms reported a decrease in input supply before COVID-19, as much as 53.9 percent of firms reported a decrease in input supply during the lockdown period, and 45.9 percent still report a decline in the supply of inputs post lockdown.
The report also notes that, some mitigating measures such as adoption of mobile money, digital technology, increase internet use, and use of courier services were implemented by agribusiness firms to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on their operations.
The survey conducted by the GSS was funded by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft fir Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) Gmblt in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The study used telephone interviews to collect data from 8,000 agribusinesses across the country on inputs and revenue by sources, labour by sex and category of workers, social security and tax payments, labour layoffs, wages by category of workers, financial inflows, access to credit and modes of access to market.
The survey, according to GSS is to examine the regional lockdown effect from the context of the description in global and regional economies on turnover, labour force, purchasing power, demand and supply of products and services within the agribusiness channel and to advise government and other stakeholders accordingly.
It is also to provide critical analysis of the response mechanism of strategies of agribusiness and support received from government.
Additionally, it is also to identify contingency mechanism and strategies that proved effective for agribusiness during the pandemic and what would be done differently in the future, compare the relative impact of the pandemic on agribusiness and assess its effectiveness.
As a leading producer of mushrooms in Ghana, my business was greatly affected during the lockdown as my major clients which are the hotels were closed down. Mushrooms which highly perishable in nature could not survive the lockdown