Cape Coast-Ghana, Nov. 11, GNA – The sixth Annual Conference of the Ghana Association of Agricultural Economists (GAAE), has rallied support for sustainable agriculture to safeguard national food security.
The availability of food, to some extent, is a yardstick to ensuring national stability, cohesion, peace, and ensure the wealth of a nation.
The four-day conference assembled experienced agricultural experts, scientists and industry players to brainstorm, exchange ideas and network to develop innovative solutions to enhance the resilience of farmers and the entire agricultural value chain.
Through presentations, parallel, plenary sessions and exhibitions, the conference would, among others, discuss matters of profound interest towards addressing key challenges to sustainable agricultural production in Ghana.
It is being held on the theme: “Sustainable food systems for national development,” with main speakers including Mr Abraham Dwumor Odoom, the 2021 Agricultural Consultant for Cocoa Redevelopment in Equatorial Guinea and Sierra Leon, Prof. Marcello De Rossa from the university of Naples Federico in Italy and others from Ghana’s universities.
This year’s conference has an international perspective and would harness collective knowledge on major topics such as ‘balancing global supply chains with local food systems,’ ‘sustainable food systems for national development’ and ‘food systems for community development,’ among others.
Mr Yaw Frimpong Addo, the Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture, underscored the importance of collective responsibility by stakeholders to address food systems sustainability, with a sense of urgency.
He recognised that the current food systems did not adequately prioritise safety, fairness, sustainability and health, thus requiring a significant transformation.
Ensuring the health and well-being of all Ghanaians depended on access to safe, nourishing and affordable diets to address hunger, poverty and malnutrition.
He said a sustainable food system delivers food security and nutrition for all in such a way that the economic, social and environmental bases to generate food security and nutrition for future generations were not compromised.
However, he said it was evident that Ghana’s food systems strategy promoted interventions across the supply, environmental, food environment, social, economic, and political sub-systems, to ensure access to safe, nutritious, and affordable diets for the well-being of its citizen.
Amid the challenges to sustainable and resilient food systems such as increasing prevalence of shocks from diseases, climate change, conflicts, policy instability, and low crop yield per hectare, some laid down measures had been introduced to address the issue of food systems in Ghana., he said.
Mr Addo said these included strengthening the food supply system by increasing local production of key staples, with a focus on nutritious indigenous staples that had been neglected; enriching the environmental system through capacity building of farmers on climate smart practices and building agricultural system resilience against climate and environmental threats.
Others were, enhancing the availability and accessibility of healthy food and promoting healthier eating habits among Ghanaians; as well as increasing the availability of food for the most vulnerable groups of Ghanaians.
Mr Addo indicated that building a resilient and sustainable food systems required sustainable actions throughout the entire agricultural value chain – from input supplies, mechanisation, irrigation, extension, transport, processing, distribution, and healthy consumption.
“Building and sustaining the system calls for significant investments in the requisite hard and soft infrastructures such as agricultural research and development.
“Education and extension; development of input supply chains; on-farm productivity increases; upgrading of agricultural product processing, distribution and logistics, and marketing to increase access to safe and nutritious food; and increased waste recycling from farm to table could not be overlooked,” Mr Addo noted.
Welcoming the participants, Prof. Daniel Bruce Sarpong, the President of GAAE said the engagement was timely considering the effects of global challenges such as the Russia-Ukraine war, COVID-19 pandemic, Middle East conflict and climate change on national food security.
It had therefore become imperative to explore more innovative pathways towards sustainable food systems for job creation for the youth and entrepreneurship in Africa, he said.
He said the youthful population across the African Continent was expanding rapidly amidst lack of sustainable jobs, resulting in hopelessness and social vices.
For that matter, sustainable agriculture innovation and entrepreneurship offered a way to enhance livelihoods and improve living conditions, particularly in rural areas where agricultural played a crucial role, he said.
Mrs Justina Marigold Assan, the Central Regional Minister said sustaining national food security was key and essential to ending hunger, ensuring safe, nutritious and sufficient food throughout the year, for sustainable development goal.
