|
US$ 28 million earmarked for poor countries
Accra, Oct. 16, Ghanadot/GNA - The United Nations Food and
Agricultural Organisation (FAO) has earmarked US$28 million
to support 40 African countries including Ghana to enable
them to carry out short-term measures to deal with the
impact of world food and energy crisis.
Ms. Maria Helena Semedo, FOA Representative in Ghana made
the announcement at a flag hoisting ceremony to mark this
year's World Food Day (WFD) celebration in Accra, which was
under the theme; "World Food Security: the Challenges of
Climate Change and Bio-energy".
The ceremony was jointly organised by the FOA, Ministry of
Food and Agriculture (MOFA) and supported by the Amen, Amen
Church in Ghana.
She underscored the need to create enabling frameworks for
sustainable increase of direct foreign investment for
agriculture in low-income, food-deficit countries as a
measure for dealing with food and energy crisis in poor
countries.
"FAO on its part has made available US$28 million to support
40 African countries, including Ghana to enable them to
carry out short-term measures, particularly the distribution
of essential farm inputs," she said.
Ms Semedo said, in Ghana, inputs and irrigation equipment
were being supplied to vulnerable farmers for them to
rapidly increase food production, adding that among all the
countries receiving support, Ghana was high on the list of
those poised to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by
the 2015 deadline.
She said climate change affected poor countries more than
any part of the world "and things will get worse", adding
that, farmers and financial institutions in poor countries
could collaborate and exploit the situation now and start
making heavy investments into food production to safeguard
their future.
Ms. Semedo noted that due to soaring world food and energy
prices as a result of climate change and use of cereal for
bio-fuel, the number of hungry people in the world had
increased by 75 million over the last three years (2005
-2007).
"This crisis is also due to decreasing investments in
agriculture particularly in the poorest countries during the
last 30 years.
"The share of agriculture in public development aid declined
from 17 per cent in 1980 to three per cent in 2006 and
financial institutions drastically reduced their funds for
agriculture," she said.
She therefore urged private financial institutions and
governments of poor countries to reverse the trend and start
investing heavily into food production now.
Ms. Semedo said it was estimated that by 2050 the world's
population would be nine billion and 30 billion dollars
would be needed everyday to produce enough food to feed
everybody.
"Agriculture has to be able to double global food production
by 2050 when the population of the globe will reach nine
billion - investing into food production now is the only way
we can ensure food security in the future," she said.
Mr. Ernest Debrah, Minister of Food and Agriculture in a
speech read on his behalf said the day provided the
opportunity to highlight the plight of 862 malnourished
people in the world today, particularly in poor countries.
He noted that climate change, the main causal factor for the
world food and energy crisis was close to Ghanaians, saying
that the northern floods and the landslide within the
Akwapim range were examples of the effects of climate
change.
The minister said it would take a collective effort by all
to stop destroying the environment, through the adoption of
good farming methods, adding that farmers in Ghana should
abide by the advice of MOFA extension officers and practice
ethical methods.
"It is our goal as a government to improve food productivity
in agriculture and attain an annual growth rate of about six
per cent in conformity with the Growth and Poverty Reduction
Strategy II by 2015," he said.
Mr. Debrah appealed to the FAO and it collaborators to
restore the TeleFood Programme and employ the services of
musicians, footballers, celebrities and the media to
campaign against hunger through concerts, sports events and
fund-raisers.
"Proceeds from those activities could be used to support
small-scale industries and farmers to increase food
production," he said.
Solidarity speeches were read on behalf of the ministers of
Fisheries and the Greater-Accra regional ministers, in which
they both called for ethical industrial and domestic
practices to save the environment and mitigate the effects
of climate change.
GNA
|
