805 million people lack food worldwide-FAO

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Dr Lamourdia Thiombiano, FAO Representative in Ghana, on Thursday said 805 million people worldwide still did not have enough to eat but Ghana had made significant progress along the lines of achieving a sustainable hunger free future.

wpid-0604130914faourgesend1.gifHe said 63 developing countries had reached the millennium development goal hunger target of halving the proportion of chronic undernourishment by 2015.

Dr Thiombiano said at a ceremony to commemorate the 34th World Food Day under the theme; ?Family Farming: Feeding the World, Caring for the Earth.?

The day was sponsored by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, Wienco, Vit?s Limited, Food and Drugs Board. The flags of Ghana and United Nations were raised.

Dr Thiombiano said ?as we rapidly approach the deadline of MDGs, we are also working together to forge the sustainable, hunger-free future we want and family farmers are protagonists in this effort.?

He said ?in Ghana, significant progress has been done along these lines and bold political commitment will boost family farming in the country to feed the people.?

Mr Fifi Fiavi Kwetey, the Minister for Food and Agriculture, said agriculture contributed 19.97 billion Ghana cedis to the country?s gross domestic product.

He said because of the efforts by farmers including those engaged in small scale family farming Ghana had made food secure in commodities like maize, cassava, yam and plantain.

For rice 40 per cent of current consumption was imported but the country is on course towards achieving rice self-sufficiency by 2017 but imports of poultry accounts for 70 to 80 per cent of current consumption though there are plans to increase domestic production.

He said because agriculture was mostly rain fed promotion of public and private irrigation is enhanced and added that that the Ministry was exploiting possibilities with the Bank of Ghana to see how credit guarantees to financial institutions could help boost finance the agriculture sector.

The Ministry is also discussing with the Bank how to provide risk sharing mechanism to help mitigate the risk of banks? lending to farmers and also use tax incentives to galvanize banks to lend more to production in the agricultural value chain.

He called on workers in public and private sector to consider investing in agriculture as a life time business that would take them even into their retirement.

Mr Kwetey said an attitudinal change to loan repayment would determine the success or otherwise of any agricultural financing scheme that government would embark on, adding that only 3.9 per cent of commercial bank?s credit went into the sector in 2013.

Ms Pippa Bradford, World Food Programe Representative and Country Director, said Ghana was on track towards reducing the burden and risk of hard, back breaking work of family farmers and added that? with joint and concerted efforts this goal would be achieved.

 

GNA

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