Food insecurity still rampant in Northern Ghana - Report

The 2012 Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Analysis (CFSVA) of the Upper East, Upper West and Northern Regions, revealed that food insecurity was still rife in those areas, with the Upper East in the lead.

In Upper East, 27 per cent of households interviewed were either severely or moderately experiencing food insecurity, compared to 10 per cent in Northern region and 16 per cent in the Upper West.

The survey was conducted in the 38 districts of the three regions by the World Food Programme (WFP) in collaboration with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) and the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) with financial support from Bill and Belinda Gates Foundation and AusAID.

It indicated that 140,000 people out of 680,000 persons interviewed were severely experiencing food insecurity and the majority of these households were headed by female, mainly widows and uneducated heads.

According to the report, these people subsist on a very poor diet of staple foods, some vegetables and oils, with food from other groups consumed on average less than once a week.

The report, which was launched in Accra on Tuesday, indicated the consumption of extremely poor diet, which could have a major impact on the nutritional status of individuals.

It attributed the situation to general poverty and poor agriculture performance; limited economic opportunity and poor infrastructure; decline in crop production; low soil fertility/ pesticide use and lack of irrigation, and climatic conditions and seasonality.

The report, therefore, recommended increased investment in adaptation measures to sustain agricultural production and households resilient to change.

The survey was conducted in the lean season, which was the main problem period for vulnerable households because of food scarcity and high food prices.

Clement Kofi Humado, Minister of Food and Agriculture, said government has demonstrated commitment to improve the food security and overall socio-economic condition of the people of Northern Ghana, through the establishment of the Savannah Accelerated Development Agency (SADA).

He said the Ministry was also undertaking several interventions to improve food security nationwide.

“In northern Ghana, the Northern Rural Growth programme has been developed to increased households’ income on a sustainable basis,” Mr. Humado said.

He said the programme would have a positive impact on rural households and contribute to achieving the objectives of the Millennium Development Goals and NEPAD’s Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP).

Mr. Humado said in Ghana, it has become imperative to understand the dynamics of food insecurity to ensure that although the country in its entirety has attained the first Millennium Development Goal on poverty and hunger, it has tried to eradicate the numerous pockets of food security which exist.

He said the findings of the survey would give the Ministry the opportunity to improve and refine interventions at the district level.

The Minister asked stakeholders in food security and nutrition sector to find creative ways of improving the circumstances of these people and empower them to attain food security even during the lean season.

Ismail Omer, WFP Representative and Country Director, said the report would serve as a basis for programming not only for WFP, but also for other stakeholders working in food security and nutrition areas.

He said in Ghana, the main challenge to ensuring food security revolve around issues of inequitable distribution, as opposed to unavailability of food.

Mr. Omer said available statistics recorded low national prevalence rates but disaggregation by regions showed a high prevalence in the three northern regions.