CPP to turn the 3 Northern Regions into ...

CPP to turn the 3 Northern Regions into Ghana’s Bread Basket within 5 years, says Akosa.

Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa, a CPP Presidential candidate has said in Accra that without food security, Ghana’s dream of achieving middle income status and eradicating poverty with in a decade would an illusion.

Akosa made the remarks during a telephone interview he granted to the International news media from his home in Accra.

Akosa said in 1996, The Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations clearly stated that all people must have access to safe and nutritious food to maintain healthy and active life, yet in 2007, some 70% of his compatriots have inadequate access to food. Akosa said the sad fact is most of the 70% lack the ability to purchase enough because they are poor.

Akosa states that in the 3 Northern regions of Ghana the situation is precarious and dire. Akosa said the poor are unable to create food secure livelihood on the land available to them due to lack of technology and irrigation. He states that food insecurity and malnutrition among the 70% poor is increasingly becoming an important development problem as more rural poor migrate to the cities. This growing exodus from the rural to the metropolis and from the north to the south is a real tragedy which the current government has pretend not to notice or inept to deal with.

In northern Ghana and rest of the country, most of the poor and malnourished live in the rural areas and majority tend to be landless. And in the urban areas, especially in the slums, the prevalence of food deficiency and malnutrition tends to be higher in households with low to no income at all. Akosa said hunger is most prevalent in the 3 northern regions due to low per capita incomes and said this can also affect agricultural output.

Akosa said to address this anomaly the CPP government under his leadership would invest huge resources in agriculture in the 3 northern regions. He explained that agriculture remains a key and critical sector for the economic development of the country. He cited Nigeria as an example where oil production has relegated agriculture to the margins and said from self sufficiency in agriculture in the 1960s and 70s, today Nigeria is a net importer of agricultural produce.

Professor Akosa said it is a well known fact that agricultural growth stimulates economic growth in non agricultural activities, which results in increased employment and thus reduce poverty. In this regard, under the CPP’s 7 -Year Development Plan, there would be large input in rural and agricultural development in the northern regions and elsewhere especially among small-holders and large commercial farms.

Akosa states that food insecurity in the country depends not only on food supply but also on its distribution; hence equitable distribution of resources would be at the top of his poverty reduction strategy. Thus it is prudent to implement measures that increase equity and this includes measures to develop the agricultural sector in the 3 northern regions. Akosa stated that his government would make available to farmers appropriate technologies in agriculture production, thus by stimulating agricultural growth, improving employment opportunities in the sector and expand food supplies which would benefit producers and consumers and lead to reduction in food insecurity.

Akosa explained that the effects of agricultural growth would be spread beyond agriculture, such as enabling the government to address issues such as poor health, lack of appropriate education and skills, fight poverty and build physical infrastructure and create the opportunities for creating more jobs through private/public partnership.