World Food Day marked in Sogakope

A flag-hoisting ceremony was held at Sogakope in the South Tongu District of the Volta Region to mark this year’s World Food Day.

The celebration was under the theme: Leave no one behind, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life.

The Deputy Minister for Food and Agriculture responsible for Crops, Yaw Frimpong Addo, Deputy Minister of Fisheries, Moses Anim, Volta Regional Minister, Dr Archibald Yao Letsa, and officials of the country offices of the World Food Programme (WFP) and other agencies of the United Nations jointly lifted high the flags of Ghana and the United Nations, to fly at full mast.

The ceremony at the Sogakope JHS ‘B’ Park was preceded by a mini durbar which was attended by traditional rulers, personnel of the security agencies, students and members of the public.

Rallying call

Mr Addo who presented the keynote address, said the World Food Day was a rallying call to humanity to prioritise food and nutrition security as a collective responsibility.

“We need to build the require resilience, and from the shocks of both natural and man-made crisis,” he added.

In that regard, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture said the country must maintain the appropriate strategies to promote solutions to the intractable problems of humanity.

He said the exponential increase in population on a fixed land should not be a major source of concern of the country.

Rather, Mr Addo said it should rather serve as a call to action targeted at increasing food production to match the alarming population growth.

He gave an assurance that the government would continue to invest in agriculture as a priority to fully unlock the sectors’ potential to address the food needs of the citizenry.

“This will be pursued through collaboration and partnership with allied agencies and development partners”, he explained.

Earlier, Mr Anim said the government had demonstrated unfading support to improving the productivity of the fishing sector.

He said the ministry was currently undertaking a review of the fisheries legislation to strengthen the regulatory framework to address lapses in fisheries governance to meet interventional best practices.

For his part, Dr Letsa said there was the need for global concerted efforts to tackle the challenge of food insecurity.

“Therefore, the World Food Programme and Food and Agriculture Organisation should assist nations like ours too access fertilizer at cheaper costs on the global market,” headed.

A Representative of the Country Director of the WFP, Barbara Clemens, said while food was available globally, it was not easily accessible, underutilized and sourcing it was unstable.

She revealed that more than 828 million people across the globe went to bed hungry every day.

Lost nutrients

For those who could access it, they lost nutrients to traditional food preparation methods, said the representative of the WFP Country Director.

“While some may have access to available foods, it is not consistent owing to an over reliance on seasonal crop cultivation, mainly because of dependency on rain for food production,” she further said.

Email: alberto.noretti@graphic.com.gh