District Assemblies urged to use local food in School Feeding Programme

Haatso (GR), Nov. 1 GNA - Professor Mike Ocquaye, Minister of Communications, on Friday re-emphasized the need for District Assemblies to incorporate local food produce into the School Feeding Programme (SFP).

He said the inclusion of local agricultural produce into the Programme would provide ready market for farmers and also serve as incentive to people, who wanted to enter into farming.

Prof. Ocqauye was speaking at the Ga East District Farmers’ Day on the occasion of the 22nd National Farmers’ Day held at Kwabenya, near Accra.

The ceremony, which is the second since the creation of the District two years ago, was on the theme: "The Youth Employment Programme, The Avenue to Sustainable Agricultural Production."

Prof Ocquaye said the Day should be set aside for made in Ghana goods when people would patronize Ghanaian products.

He said the Government recognized the importance of farming and had, therefore, provided incentives to farmers in the form of loans and farming inputs.

Prof. Ocquaye challenged researchers and scientists to come out with innovations and solve the problem of packaging and storage, which affected Ghanaian produce.

He said Ghanaians must dedicate some of their efforts to matters that concerned agriculture to enable farmers to feed the whole nation.
Mr Kofi Allotey, Ga East District Chief Executive, expressed the need for the nation to accord farmers the necessary attention they deserved and not to take them for granted.

He called for the adoption of modern methods of farming that would significantly improve upon yields to reduce the pressure on land.
He said the methods that had been employed in agriculture over the years had been slow in changing hence population growth and the need for land for settlement had put pressure on farmlands.

Mr Allotey, however, cautioned that the call for the modernization of agriculture did not imply the uncontrolled use of chemicals and other unfriendly methods which had become a source of worry to consumers.

"You are witnesses to food poisoning as a result of the use of chemicals," he said, and appealed to agricultural workers to do proper extension services to prevent the indiscriminate use of chemicals.

GNA


 

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