Kamis, 21 Maret 2013

OVER 600,000 WITHOUT ADEQUATE FOOD IN THREE REGIONS

More than 680,000 people in the three northern regions are either severely or moderately food insecure, a 2012 World Food Programme (WFP) comprehensive food security and vulnerability analysis has revealed.

Of the number, 140,000 are classified as severely food insecure, which means that they have very poor diet consisting of just staples, mainly maize and millet, few vegetables and oil.

The report also reveals that Wa West is the most food insecure district in the three northern regions, with close to half of its households, representing 42 per cent, severely or moderately food insecure.

Other most food insecure districts are Central Gonja, Talensi/Nabdam, Kassena/Nankana West, Kassena/Nankana East and Garu/Tempane.

Speaking at the launch of the report in Accra, the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Mr Clement Kofi Humado, said it was imperative to understand the dynamics of food insecurity in order to ensure that although the country in its entity had attained the Millennium Development Goal  (MDG) on poverty and hunger, there was still the need to eradicate the numerous pockets of food insecurity which existed.

He said currently the ministry was undertaking several interventions to improve food security nationwide, saying that in the Northern Region, the Northern Rural Growth Programme had been developed to increase household income on a sustainable basis.

Mr Humado said the programme would have a positive impact on rural households and contribute to achieve the objectives of the MDGs and the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).

He, therefore, called on stakeholders in the food security and nutrition sector to find creative ways of improving the circumstances of food insecure people and empower them to become food secure, even during the lean season when food was expensive and often inaccessible to poor households.

He expressed optimism that more partners would join hands with the WFP to enable it to mobilise resources for further studies, so that nationwide district level interventions would be extremely beneficial to the vulnerable and food insecure.

The Country Director of the WFP, Mr Ismail Omer, for his part, said the main challenges of food insecurity in Ghana revolved around issues of inequitable distribution, as opposed to unavailability of food.

“Available statistics record low national prevalence rates, but disaggregation by regions shows a high prevalence in the three northern regions,” he added.

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