Ghana marks World Food Day

Accra, Oct. 16, GNA - Ghana is determined to continuously invest in the agricultural sector to enable it grow by a minimum of 10 per cent in the medium term.

Mr Ernest Debrah, Minister of Food and Agriculture, who announced the move at this year's national celebration of the World Food Day on Monday, said through the Millennium Challenge Account and other interventions, 'the Government of Ghana is pushing up investments in the agricultural sector'.

The Day which was on the theme: "Investing in Sustainable Agriculture for Food Security- the Youth Our Future", was marked with a flag raising ceremony at the State House in Accra.

Mr Debrah said sustainable agriculture was not only about how to keep the farming activities going, but also about how to keep farming activities growing and improving.

He said sustainable agriculture could only be achieved through investments in the agricultural sector and the involvement of the nation's young ones, which would in turn ensure food security and reduce poverty.

The theme of this year's World Food Day, the 26th, throws the searchlight on the need to examine the true value of sustainable agriculture and to bring into focus the relevance of investment to sustain global agriculture.

Mr Debrah said the Government was expanding access to irrigation through the construction of dams and dugouts, sinking of wells and application of other small-scale irrigation systems.

He announced that the Ministry was pursuing a Youth in Employment Programme, along the Government of Ghana's Youth in Employment Programme, to whip up the interest of the youth in agriculture and to give them employment as well.

Fisheries Minister, Mrs Gladys Asmah, who turned 70 on the World Food Day, said the Ministry was focusing largely on aquaculture as a tool for both job and wealth creation.

She said the Ministry has trained over 300 youth in aquaculture and they were expected to be assisted financially to enable them to set up their own fish farms.

Mrs Asmah announced that the Fisheries Ministry has commenced a programme to train small-scale miners known as Galamsey operators in fish farming.

This is to assist them to convert all degraded lands and disused mine pits into fishponds, which had proven to be more lucrative than Galamsey operation.

Mrs Asmah observed that to ensure sustainability in fish food production, it is estimated that the world's fish supply from aquaculture might reach between 40 per cent and 50 per cent by the year 2020.

Mr Oloche Edache, FAO Regional Representative for Africa, read a message from the Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Jacques Diouf, and noted that despite the progress achieved in agriculture and rural development, more than 850 million people still remained hungry and poor.

He said the challenge of increasing investment in agriculture was increasingly great in Africa, for which Governments in the region, under the Maputo Declaration in 2003 were doubling the present level of resources invested in agriculture.

He praised small-scale farmers as the biggest investors in agriculture, and called for new ways of bringing together peasant farmers to form co-operatives with agribusiness and for governments to create profitable ventures for them.

In solidarity with the people in the over 100 countries where the Day was being observed, all the people in attendance responded to a call to symbolically stand up and be counted.

"By performing this symbolic action, we will be joining people in over 100 countries... to remind World Leaders of their promise to eradicate extreme poverty through the Millennium Development Goals," the FAO Director General said.

A message from the outgoing Secretary General of the UN, Busumuru Kofi Annan declared: 'Let us renew our pledge to work together towards a day when no man, no woman or child goes to sleep hungry. Let's resolve to win the fight against hunger once and for all.' Prof Daniel Adzei Bekoe, Chairman of the Council of State, chaired the function. 16 Oct. 06