Agriculture group calls for proper food policy

Accra, Nov. 27, GNA - The Ghana National Agricultural Technical Class Association (GNATCA) has called on the Government to come out with a proper food policy to enhance the quality standard of food and to curtail poor handling of foodstuffs, food poisoning and the wrong use of agro-chemicals.

A communiqu=E9 issued by GNATCA at the end of its National Executive Council Meeting at Takoradi, asked the Government to take a second look at the trade liberalization policy on importation of agricultural products such as rice, maize, meat and poultry, which had direct effect on domestic production and poverty reduction. The Communiqu=E9 released in Accra on Monday also called on the Government to ensure effective policy on processing, packaging, distribution and marketing of domestic agricultural products by creating food buffer stock.

It said field staff of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) should be fully involved in the Youth in Agriculture Programme at all levels to ensure sustainability.

MOFA should also adopt and implement agricultural research findings on agricultural technologies such as bio-technology to enhance exportation of quality standard agricultural products.

The communiqu=E9 further tasked the Government to address the lapses in the technical supervision of the mass cocoa spraying programme and to revisit the policy on human resource development of staff as contained in the current revised scheme of service for MOFA.