FAO DIRECTOR-GENERAL LAUDS GHANA'S FOOD SECURITY EFFORTS (PAGE 14)

The Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Dr Jacques Diouf, has commended Ghana for its efforts to achieve food security under the Millennium Development Goals.
He said 62 countries, 20 of which were in Africa, were confronted with food security problems which could threaten their stability if measures were not taken to provide them with food aid.
The FAO Director-General made these remarks when he paid a courtesy call on the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni, in Accra last Wednesday.
He explained that food security was no longer just a vital economic and moral issue but had assumed a new dimension as a peace and security issue in the world.
Dr Diouf said food stocks around the world had reached their lowest in 60 years because of factors which included population growth, climate change and the resultant high food prices.
He hinted that if climate change worsened this year, many countries could slip into a food crisis, reminiscent of that of 2007 which saw demonstrations against governments.
He said to mitigate the effects of the food crisis, the FAO had launched an initiative which would provide countries mostly affected, access to seeds, fertilisers and equipment at affordable prices to increase food production.
The Director-General urged Ghana to take advantage of the FAO initiative to increase food security by making maximum use of the FAO regional offices for Africa which is in Accra.
Dr Diouf explained that Ghana had comparative and competitive advantage in food production since about 60 per cent of the population were engaged agriculture.
Alhaji Mumuni, for his part, observed that the FAO had a critical and strategic role to play in ensuring food security in the world.
He said Ghana was committed to assisting the FAO in its role to achieve food security, not only in the country but the world in general.
He said Ghana had benefited immeasurably from the nutrition programme of the FAO for children and pregnant women which had helped to improve the living conditions of the beneficiaries.
The foreign minister appealed to strategic partners to collaborate and cooperate to harness the agricultural potential of the country to ensure the realisation of the vision of the government to modernise agriculture.
Alhaji Mumuni said Ghanaian farmers who were working hard to maintain agricultural production in the country were still using hoes and machetes but it was the determination of the government to help them replace these obsolete tools with modern agricultural implements.