The programme, which was launched in Goaso in the Brong Ahafo Region, is expected to modernize agriculture, improve production, achieve food security and make Ghana more self-sufficient, whilst creating jobs for the youth, the President said.

[contextly_sidebar id=”U7dBmjwGFqrR03tZ1GFBXPEhW5ppK1JO”]He recounted encounters with farmers in the Brong Ahafo Region, known to be the food basket of Ghana, who indicated their expectation of the Akufo-Addo government to revive and modernize the agriculture sector.

The farmers also served notice of their desire and an end to the “disgraceful spectacle of importing foodstuffs from neighbouring countries,” the President added.

In response to these expectations, President Akufo-Addo said: “I am happy to inform you that ‘Planting for food and Jobs’ is the basis of the answer to the twin problems you have been confronted in recent years.”

He reiterated that, the policy “is anchored on the pillars that will transform Ghana’s agriculture; the provision of improved seeds, the supply of fertilizers, the provision of dedicated extension services and marketing strategy.

The initiative is expected to increase the production of maize by 30%, rice by 49%, soybean by 25% and sorghum by 28% for current production levels.

Agric needed for meaningful change

The President stressed that, if Ghana is to see any meaningful change in the lives of her people, efforts must be directed at Agriculture.

Some of these efforts will see government “pursue a value addition strategy aimed at rapidly ramping up agro-processing and developing new and stable markets for our products.”

“Our policies and intervention will encompass the full agriculture value chain and creating additional business and job opportunities in the areas of storage, transport, processing and marketing of agriculture produce, all of which will ensure that our farmers and fisher-folk earn a higher income,” President Akufo-Addo said.

–

By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’ will succeed – Nana Addo appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Dubbed the Foresight Report on Africa, the report, titled ‘Food Systems and Diets: Facing the Challenges of the 21^st Century’, was launched by the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition at the 7^th Africa Day for Food and Nutrition Security (ADFNS).

[contextly_sidebar id=”kTCfCOjpfgTG0ws7up3HKdUMj2D8C6HS”]The theme for this year’s celebration was: ‘Investing in Food Systems for Improving Child Nutrition: Key to Africa’s Renaissance’.

A former Director General of the Ghana Health Service, Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa, in his presentation on ‘Scaling up Nutrition in Ghana’, said that although Ghana has performed creditably well in reducing the rate of malnutrition, it had to do more to improve the gains made.

According to him, many children in Ghana have short attention spans because of malnutrition. He said this could be translated to the academic performance of most Ghanaian students.

An Associate Professor at the Department of Nutrition and Food Science of the University of Ghana, Professor Matilda Steiner-Asiedu, in an interview with citifmonline.com, lamented that recent trends suggested an increasing phenomenon of wrong food choices leading to obesity.

“We are seeing this not only in adults, but also in children. Ghana is also facing a stunning rate of about 9%.Now all this is due to wrong food choices and the quality of food eaten. We can’t talk about nutrition and leave out food safety. We need all hands on deck to tackle it holistically in order to reorient our people to make healthy food choices,” she said.

A former Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, Dr Joyce Aryee who officially launched the report charged the media and the African Union (AU) to massively share the knowledge contained in the report in order to make it available to all and influence positive action.

“The knowledge in this document must be implemented. It is not just one person’s role, but each individual’s responsibility to make sure that this knowledge is disseminated and used at all levels because we can no longer live with a crisis that can be resolved.

We don’t have to have a nutritional crisis. What we need is a nutritional agenda that gives our people nourishing food,” she also said.

The Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition is an independent group of influential experts with a commitment to tackling global challenges in food and nutrition security. It aims at providing guidance to decision-makers, particularly governments, and to inform and promote agricultural and food policies, as well as investment for improved nutrition in low and middle-income countries.

The Global Panel is jointly funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK Department for International Development (DFID).

Read the full report here.

–

By: Akosua Ofewaa Opoku/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Ghana faces double burden of malnutrition – Report appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

He said with two months away from the biggest festive season, traders and shop owners would be in a haste to sell off their old stock, which may include expired products.

He said it was therefore important that the public becomes vigilant, especially with very cheap products and those without labels or without inscriptions in English Language and report to the FDA.

Mr. Owusu was speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Friday, after a team from his office disposed of a stockpile of unwholesome products valued at thousands of cedis at the Nkanfoa land field site in Cape Coast.

The products, included drugs, cosmetics, herbal medicine and assorted foods products that had either expired, were counterfeited or unregistered.

The FDA confiscated them during a post market surveillance.

Mr. Owusu said the Authority was committed to its main objective of safeguarding public health and safety and would not spare peddlers of unregistered or expired products when they are found.

He said some traders intentionally defaced the expiry dates of the products but through its surveillance they were able to arrest some of them, explaining that while some of the culprits were serving jail terms, others were still on trial.

He said the Authority would continue to educate traders and the public on safety measures and urged those who had expired products to contact them for safe disposal.

Mr Owusu called for cooperation from the various stakeholders, including the media to ensure the health and safety of consumers.

–

Source: GNA

The post FDA urges Ghanaians to be on alert for expired products appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.