As the country marks World Food Day, today, under the theme “Greening Ghana with coconut”, the New Patriotic Party Communications Director, Nana Akomea says, even though government seems to be committed to boosting food supply in the country, there has not been adequate support for the sustenance of food and crops farming.
He indicated that sixty percent of the country’s food farmers engage in peasant farming and their use of blunt farm implements makes it difficult for them to compete with their foreign competitors.
Touching on the importation of farm produce, Nana Akomea told host of the big bite on Xfm 95.1, Abena Asiedua, that the country’s defunct producing factories should be resuscitated to bridge the gap between the local food farmers and their competitors from the foreign countries. He also proposed that the government should cut down on the importation of food crops and believed this intervention by a competent government can stimulate a larger supply of food crops into the economy and encourage the domestic farmers to meet the competitive market.
Explaining further, the NPP Communications Director said that guaranteed prices should be imposed on the food crops and also suggested that the government should adopt a different and refined approach in resolving the economic food crises. This, he assured, can eradicate the daunting challenges facing the peasant farmers.
“We need bold, decisive, courageous, transformational leadership in this country which will also apply to food farming”, he said. He added that the inadequate storage facilities in addition to the less support for the production of food are a major setback to food farming in the country.
Nana Akomea pledged his party’s commitment to supporting local food farming on a large scale which is intended to give the farmers a relief and better improvement of their farming conditions.
He lauded the Ex-President J.A. Kuffour for his role in ensuring that the peasant food farmers experience a major boost in the production of food and crops.
Price swings, upswings in particular, represent a major threat to food security in developing countries. Hardest-hit are the poor. According to the World Bank, in 2010-2011 rising food costs pushed nearly 70 million people into extreme poverty.
“FOOD PRICES – FROM CRISIS TO STABILITY” has been chosen as this year’s World Food Day theme to shed some light on this trend and what can be done to mitigate its impact on the most vulnerable. In Ghana, the day is being marked under the theme; “Greening Ghana with Coconut” to address the destruction being caused by the “Cape Saint Paul Wilt” disease in coconut plantations, especially along the coast.
The disease has destroyed large acres of coconut plantations along the coasts of Ghana and has seriously affected the livelihood of most coconut farmers in the region.
A deputy Minister of Agriculture in charge of crops, Yaw Effah-Baafi said coconut has so many nutritional values and economic importance, and therefore local farmers needed to be educated and supported so as to help to derive the maximum benefit from the crop. Story by Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Xfm 95.1/Accra/Ghana
