THINK TAN URGED TO ADDRESS NR FOOD INSECURITY (BACK PAGE, AUGUST 14, 2010)

A Think Tank charged with addressing the challenges of food insecurity in northern Ghana has been inaugurated in Tamale.
The group, known as the Food for Life Think Tank, is made up of experts from the Savannah Agricultural Research Institute (SARI), the Animal Research Institute, the University for Development Studies (UDS), the Irrigation Development Authority (IDA), CARE International, the Water Research Institute, the Forestry Commission, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency, among others.
It was initiated by the Ghana Developing Communities Association (GDCA) and Friendship Groups in Denmark (GV) under its Empowerment for Life (E4L) programme.
The Chairman of the GDCA, Professor Abubakari Al-Hassan, explained that the group would help co-ordinate, re-examine and reformulate previous strategies in the new context of climate change.
“Members will use their strong professional profile, network and links to stakeholder institutions to make the think tank a key player in the field and place food security and climate change adaptation high on the political agenda,” he pointed out.
According to him, as a counterpart to the group, a farmer forum group had been established in 10 different rural communities in the Yendi District to work towards developing a Food for Life strategy which would entail a review of existing data and the establishment of a resource centre.
Prof. Al-Hassan said the resource centre would comprise a library and a database of the existing data and actors, samples of relevant equipment, a demonstration of ideas and findings, relevant journals and materials from other stakeholders and would be open for public use as a learning centre.
In a speech read on his behalf, the Director-General of the Council for Scientific Research (CSIR), Dr Abdulai Salifu, said the effects of climate change included reduction in rainfall amounts, flooding, increase in temperature, with its attendant problems such as uncertainty in food production and food policy issues, worsening food insecurity, the widening of income gaps, stress on disaster management systems, among others.
He advised farmers to adopt such strategies as the cultivation of drought resistance crops and dry season gardening to mitigate the effects of climate change.
The Northern Regional Minister, Mr Moses Mabengba, noted that small-scale farmers in the region were far from securing an all-year round food supply, in spite of the many interventions being provided.
He announced plans by the government to establish a climate fund that would help mitigate the effects of climate change.
A member of the Council of State, Kpan-Naa Mohammed Baba Bawah, said in northern Ghana, environmental scarcity, occasioned by lowering amount of rainfall, had caused tremendous damage to human life through incessant conflicts in the quest for the domination of scarce existing land resources.
In a speech read on his behalf, the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Mr Kwesi Ahwoi, urged the group to remain focused and collaborate effectively with all stakeholders to help address food insecurity problems in the north.