Africa Lead, an international development company is showing testimony of its determination to help end food insecurity in Ghana through strengthening the knowledge base of farmer based organizations (FBOs).
Africa Lead has began the process of promoting policy and capacity building of key actors in the agric industry.
Africa Lead is a Feed the Future and USAID funded program designed to contribute to the African-Union led Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) and the Feed the Future’s (FTF) goals of reduced hunger and poverty.
To this end, various farmer based organizations in the country were housed at Miklin Hotel, in Kumasi, for a five day residential training dubbed “ Champions for Change training’’.
In all more than 40 farmers benefited from the training. The beneficiary organizations were Ghana National Association of Farmers and Fishermen (GNAFF), Concern Farmers Association of Ghana, National Farmers and Fishermen Association of Ghana (NFFAWAG) and others.
An official of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), Mr. Henry Crenstel Junior, who was a key resource person at the programme, tasked farmers in the country to identify the challenging situations that could work against them from achieving food security and adopt a strategy that would help the worrying situation of food insecurity.
Many experts had earlier predicted that, the country was likely to face food insecurity in the coming years unless holistic approach is taken to avert that situation.
He noted that, strengthening institutions and policy capacity for food security could help but requires the government’s effort and business concerns in food industry.
Mr. Crentsil, therefore appealed to researchers and entrepreneurs to explore the numerous opportunities in the agric industry to turn Ghana’s agriculture sector into a hub of agribusiness.
Various farmer organizations in Ghana wants a comprehensive policy on agriculture to make the sector a formidable one. The argument has been that the absence of a comprehensive agriculture policy has negatively affected the sector.
The Ashanti Regional chairman of the Ghana National Association of Farmers and Fishermen, Rev. Kojo Nkrumah, commended the institution for embarking on such initiatives and pledged to make judicious use of the knowledge acquired to help transform the agric sector
