Govt to establish Buffer Stock Management Agency

Government is to establish a Buffer Stock Management Agency as a long term measure to ensure food security.

The Greater Accra Regional Minister, Julius Debrah who made the announcement stated that such an Agency will have the dual responsibility of holding food security buffer stocks and intervening in markets to ensure competitive prices to farmers in times of glut.

Mr Debrah said this in an address read on his behalf during a flag raising ceremony to mark the 33rd observance of world food day, on the theme: “Sustainable food systems for food security and nutrition.” It had the slogan: “Healthy people depend on healthy food systems.”

According to Mr. Debrah, among the Millennium Development Goals, which the United Nations has set for the 21st century, halving the proportion of hungry people in the world is top on the list.

He noted that whereas good progress was made in reducing chronic hunger in the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s, the phenomenon has been slowly but steadily rising for the past decade.

“I am aware hunger could be attributed to a number of factors. Nonetheless, the factors are intrinsically related and are the same factors that have always deepened the plight of hunger on humanity.

Some of these factors include low productivity of agriculture, the population growth rate being high in developing countries, low investments in agriculture research and development in our developing countries, drastic rural-urban migration of youths who are energetic enough to work in (the) sector, and slow down of foreign direct investment,” he stated.

Mr Debrah therefore pointed out that there is the need for a shared responsibility by stakeholders who matter in the drive.

He said the involvement of everyone such as the civil society organizations, government, and the media in creating the awareness of hunger and the need to control it or eliminate it completely through education about food security would create and achieve the desired results “we all crave for”.

“Consequently, government’s approach to ensuring food security to... Ghanaians is to address simultaneously the issue of food availability and response to crises situation and nutritional problems through food production, strategic reserves, trade, access to food, economic growth and income,” the Regional Minister said.

“As government strives to ensure food security in the country, let us remind ourselves of the Food and Agriculture Organization’s continues search for lasting solution to the problem of hunger and poverty in the world.

Let us strengthen international and national solidarity in the struggle against hunger, malnutrition and poverty, and draw attention to achievements in food and agricultural development, encourage transfer of technical know-how to developing countries, encourage economic and technical cooperation among developing countries and ensure massive participation of rural people, particularly women and the under privileged in decisions regarding hunger,” he added.