Dr Ahmed Yakubu Alhassan, the Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture in charge of Crops, has underscored the need for strategic measures in creating a favourable policy environment that will help resource poor local farmers.
He’s explained that because family farmers in Africa are highly vulnerable they have limited capacity to fight conditions such as climate change and market forces, which adversely affects food and nutrition security.
Speaking at the opening of the Fourth Planning and General Meeting of Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) in Accra, Dr. Alhassan said “the era of despair, timidity and sometimes outright cynicism of African agriculture must give way to confidence, mutual trust and co-operation among stakeholders.”
Government he says through the Ministry of Food and Agriculture(MOFA) has introduced a number of strategies and plans which it intend to roll out to address such challenges.
The Adaptation of Agro-ecological Systems to Climate Change Project is one major area of intervention among others being piloted in 10 smallholder farming communities in the Guinea savannah and Forest-Transitional Agro-ecological zones by the Ministry, he says.
Dr Alhassan maintained that enhancing the indigenous knowledge of farmers is the sure way to achieve food security and sovereignty.
By: Kasapafmonline.com/Ghana
