Agric Ministry embarks on tomato processing programme

Accra, Oct. 16, GNA - The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) with assistance from the Italian Government is to build a tomato processing facility at Techiman in the Brong Ahafo Region to address problems associated with tomato glut.

Additionally, the Wenchi Tomato Factory is being reactivated, Major Courage Quashigah (rtd), Minister of MOFA, said these at a flag-raising ceremony to mark this year's World Food Day in Accra.

He said the Ministry had also imported quantities of small-scale tomato processors for distribution to farm based organizations.

The theme for this year's celebration is: "International Alliance Against Hunger." It is based on a global initiative to involve a network of groups in the fight against hunger.

Maj. Quashigah said a national alliance was needed to deal with problems of abundance of food during bumper harvests and scarcity in the lean season to ensure sustained food security.

"This requires that our research scientists, farmers and fishermen, the staff of MOFA, transporters, financial institutions, processors, packagers and food vendors including our market queens play their role in the most patriotic manner to achieve even distribution of food with low prices," he said.

Maj. Quashigah said MOFA was collaborating with research scientists, the private sector and other stakeholders to increase production of crops, livestock and fish, while facilitating their haulage, improving their processing and packaging to enhance marketing.

The Agriculture Minister said with assistance from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the Ministry had established a diary processing plant to produce fresh milk, yogurt, cheese and butter.

He said the Ministry was in the process of bringing in five more of such plants to increase production so that "milk consumption can increase from a low 10 kilogram per person per year, which is far below the FAO recommended consumption of 120kg per person per year."

The Minister said with the establishment of the livestock development project, "our objective is to increase the production of meat and increase its consumption from four kilograms per person per year." He said the Ministry was collaborating with the private sector in the fabrication of machinery for pumping underground water as an alternative to sophisticated irrigation schemes.

Dr Jacques Diouf, Director-General of FAO, in a speech read for him, said 840 million people, with more than 800 of them in developing countries, still suffered from chronic hunger.

"This leaves us much too far from the World Food Summit goal set in 1996, to cut by half the number of hungry people by 2015," he said. He called for political will from governments to tackle the problem of chronic hunger.

Sheikh I.C. Quaye, Greater Accra Regional Minister, said the national food target could be met in an environment of peace and security. He said armed conflict greatly affected crop production and that the government had established the right policy environment to boost food production.