Ginger is contributing to Ghana’s high import expenditure as the country now consumes 99 per cent of what used to be abundantly produced locally, now sourced from the international market, especially China. This is due to a disease that collapsed the sector, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) researchers have said, calling for a research-led recovery.
According to a story by the Ghana News Agency, Scientists at CSIR said the country’s increasing dependence on imports is a result of weak seed systems, limited irrigation, poor soil health, disease pressure, and insufficient investment in horticultural research.
They revealed this during the second session of the 2026 Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MEST) Visibility Webinar Series, held virtually on the theme “CSIR’s Interventions on Tomato and Ginger”.
Principal Research Scientist and vegetable breeder at the CSIR Crop Research Institute, Dr Michael Kwabena Osei, noted that national demand had risen from about 18,000 tonnes in 2020 to between 30,000 and 32,000 tonnes in 2025, but production collapsed after a bacterial wilt outbreak in 2022.
The disease, caused by Ralstonia solanacearum and locally referred to as the “ginger killer”, reduced national production from about 102 tonnes to roughly 10 tonnes, leaving Ghana more than 99 per cent dependent on imported ginger.
Ghana now spends about US$500,000 annually importing ginger, mainly from China, Nigeria and Burkina Faso, he added.
The supply shock had driven prices sharply upward, with a sack of ginger rising from about GH¢250 in 2022 to GH¢4,000 in 2025 and about GH¢6,000 or more at the time of the webinar.
Dr Osei noted that the disease was soil-borne, spread through infected planting material, poor drainage, heavy rains, monocropping and contaminated farm tools, and could not be chemically treated once a crop was infected.
He stated that CSIR’s recovery plan for ginger rested on four pillars: development of resistant varieties, production of disease-free planting material through tissue culture, disease surveillance and integrated pest management, and farmer deployment through extension networks.
Ms Matilda Frimpong, a ginger research scientist at CSIR-CRI, advised that growers should obtain certified rhizomes from certified companies or research institutions because the wilt pathogen was microscopic, soil-borne and could not be identified by sight.
She noted that the most sustainable long-term control measure was breeding for resistance, beyond crop rotation and other cultural practices.
Source: GNA
