Accra, May 23, GNA - The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) with its stakeholders will derive information from the meteorological centres to inform farmers on the rainfall patterns to guide their farming schedules for good harvest.

El Hadj Dramane Coulibaly, Coordinator of the Regional Support Programme on Food Security and Desertification for the Sahel and West Africa, said this would ensure enough food was stored to help other countries all year round. He said the programme would be done with support from selected partners like Africare, Catholic Relief Services (CRS), Counterpart International (CPI), USAID Feminine Early Warning Systems Network and the World Food Programme.

El Hadj Coulibaly was speaking with the Ghana News Agency after MOFA and the Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS) held a meeting on the regional food security information system for Sahel and West Africa on Tuesday. The programme is to help recover agricultural based livelihood to improve food security for rural households in vulnerable countries in the sub region. It is also to implement enhancing programmes with in-depth education for food producers on the rain fall patterns in the Sahel and West African countries.

El Hadj Coulibaly said residents of agro-pastoral and rural zones like Niger had experienced increased food insecurity as a result of failed harvests caused by short seasonal rains and a second consecutive year of poor pasture condition for live stock due to prolonged drought. He advised Ghanaian farmers to make good use of the rain fall pattern since Ghana was fortunate to be blessed with a lot of rainfall unlike Niger which barely got rains to help farmers in food production. "This will help Ghana to support other countries with food so together we can combat food crisis in Sahel and West Africa" he said.