PROVIDE FUNDING FOR CROP RESEARCH TO STEM HUNGER (BACK PAGE)

PARTICIPANTS in the third Harmattan School on food security and poverty reduction in northern Ghana have entreated the government and development partners to provide the needed funding to facilitate research into indigenous crops that are crucial in fighting hunger in the northern part of the country.
They said in view of the increases in food prices, it was necessary for the government to invest more in the research and development of non-traditional foods, particularly in the northern Ghana, to improve on food security.
The participants also suggested the setting up of an independent board to effectively manage the shea-nut industry while ensuring that the guinea fowl industry was given the needed logistical and financial support to ensure its competitive advantage in the northern part of the country.
This was contained in a communiqué issued at the end of the two-day school that was organised by the Centre for Continuing Education and Interdisciplinary Research of the University for Development Studies (UDS) in Tamale.
It was aimed, among other objectives, at discussing the factors responsible for the global food crisis, its severity and effects on food security in northern Ghana.
The school is a policy think tank that was initiated in February, 2007 to promote advocacy to help improve on accountability in the development discourse of northern Ghana.
This year’s school was on the theme, “Food security and poverty reduction: Conventional and non-conventional food production”. In all, 50 participants from academia and civil society organisations took part in the deliberations.
The acting Vice Chancellor of the UDS, Professor Kaku Sagary Nokoe, who presented the communiqué, emphasised that “despite the numerous government and non-governmental interventions aimed at reducing poverty and improving food security in northern Ghana, the area continued to face high levels of food insecurity”.
“There is the need to provide policy alternatives that will ensure food security in the north and respond to emergency situations such as the recent floods and the global crunch,” he said.
According to him, it was necessary to improve on such indigenous crops as Sesame, Tamarandus, Frafra potatoes and aerial yam.
“Just as there is a Cocoa Research Institute, the government should establish a shea-nut research institute with budgetary allocations so as to encourage research into the commercialisation of the shea tree,” the vice chancellor stated.
He further observed that those in the guinea fowl industry needed such facilities as feed, drugs, housing, water and microcredit to help boost the industry.