Paramount Chief of Some lauds FSRP for engagement

The Paramount Chief of Sômè Traditional Area in the Volta Region, Torgbiga Adama III, has commended the West Africa Food System Resilience Programme (FSRP) for bringing on board all stakeholders in the quest to tackle food insecurity.

He said the approach adopted by the FSRP was crucial in tackling food security in the short and long term, as it created the necessary awareness among all stakeholders, including traditional leaders, on the need to work together.

“We are grateful to you for taking the decision to see the traditional authority to make an input into this. We are also grateful for considering us,” he said. Torgbiga Adama made this remark during a stakeholder engagement with a team from FSRP.

The engagement was part of a second round of markets assessment exercise by FSRP to ascertain the viability of such market centres to promote cross-border trade in agricultural produce in the West African sub-region.

The second round of the engagement also took the team to Eyinase, Ejura, Navrongo, Bolgatanga and Techiman.

FSRP

The West Africa Food System Resilience Programme (FSRP) is an initiative that seeks to support key value chain activities to increase preparedness against food insecurity, build resilience of agriculture — food systems and harmonise agricultural markets in the West African sub region.

Participating countries include Ghana, Togo, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Chad, Sierra Leone and Senegal. The five-year project which started this year is being supported by the World Bank

In Ghana, FSRP which is being implemented by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, focuses on the intensified production, marketing and consumption of wholesome rice, maize, broiler poultry, soya beans  and tomatoes.

To that end, the project seeks to construct or refurbish pivotal value chain facilities across the country, including veterinary-based laboratories, plant-based laboratories, a seed bank, inner valleys, irrigation schemes, border posts, warehouses and cross-border bulk trade markets.

Torgbiga Adama urged FSRP to continue with the engagement to help curb food insecurity, adding that food insecurity was one of the challenges inhibiting sustainable development in the country.

He called on other agencies, particularly from the government, to emulate FSRP by seeking the input of all stakeholders, including traditional leaders, in their activities. “This is what most of our government agencies are not doing by ignoring us (the traditional authorities). They go and plan and come and pour on us and when  they fail; yet they refuse to learn from this. It will be good for government agencies to cultivate the habit of involving traditional authorities before they take a decision,” he said.

Sustainability

The Infrastructure Engineer of FSRP, Bloomfield Crosby Attipoe, explained that the engagement process was part of efforts by the FSRP to ensure the success of the project as well as sustain the intervention long after it had ended.

An agricultural economist with the FSRP, Allswell Emmanuel Okai, said more markets would be chosen for the project based on research subjected to analysis.

“The findings collated from our rounds will be reported to the Management of FSRP and subjected to technical analysis, following which the best suited markets will be selected for refurbishment,” he said.