Experts meet on food security
A recent Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Analysis conducted by the World Food Programme (WFP), has confirmed that the three northern regions in Ghana continued to record higher incidents of poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition.
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The analysis indicated that the highest proportion of food-insecure households are found in the Upper East Region where 28 per cent of households are either severely or moderately food insecure, as compared to 10 per cent of households in the Northern Region and 16 per cent in the Upper West Region.
According to the report , poverty was one of the main causes of food insecurity in northern Ghana, especially in the Upper East Region where more than half, about 56 per cent of households, fall into the poorest segments of the population as against a third of the population in the Northern and Upper West regions.
These were disclosed by the acting Director of Policy Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Division (PPMED) of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), Mr Nicholas Neequaye, at the First National Agri-Food Roundtable Meeting held in Accra.
The meeting, which was organised with the support of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), United Nations Environmental Programme, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Ghana National Cleaner Production Centre and the Agri-Food Roundtable on Sustainable Consumption and Production (ARSCP), had 50 participants attending from the EPA, MOFA, the universities and farmers.
Mr Neequaye said food security continued to be a key challenge around the world and Africa in particular. He said it was for this reason that several interventions had been developed over time to address the issue through the Millennium Development Goals at the global level, the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) at the continental level and the ECOWAS Policy at the subregional level through country investment plans.
In Ghana, he said the Food and Agriculture Sector Development Policy, FASDEP II, and its investment plan known as the Medium Term Agriculture Sector Investment Plan had identified nutritive quality of food, self-sufficiency as well as physical and financial availability of resources as major issues with food security which the ministry was taking steps to address.
“Even though production levels indicate that Ghana was self-sufficient in roots and tubers as well as cereals, the country continued to import commodities like rice, meat and fish to meet demand,” he said.
He tasked the participants at the meeting to brainstorm and come up with strategies to address food insecurity and ensure sustainable consumption and production.
In his address, the Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Mr Daniel Amlalo, expressed worry over the non-existent connection between agriculture production and the points of consumption.
“For instance, there was no linkage between the production of food and the hospitality industry. A link between the two sectors would help eliminate or reduce wastage of food,” he said.
He said the EPA had drawn up a programme to liaise with MOFA to ensure that waste was eliminated at the agriculture production stage.
He also said the outcome of the meeting would be developed into a document and passed on to the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) to accelerate the implementation of identified strategie.
By Jojo Sam/Daily Graphic/Ghana