The government of Ghana through the West Africa Food Systems Resilience Project (FSRP) is assisting farmers and other players in the agriculture value chain to provide solutions for the country’s food security and resilience.
The project focuses on climate-smart and technology driven data analysis to improve productivity of five main commodities – poultry, soybean, rice, maize and tomatoes.
Farmers and agro-processors are provided with credit and processing machines to enhance productivity, and linked with markets for their produce, while households and communities are empowered to withstand uncertainty and shocks in food production and supply.
Operations Manager, FSRP, Mr Philip Daniel Laryea, said the project will reduce the incidence of food insecurity, while enhancing the resilience of the country’s food systems.
He stated that climate change, global upheavals and other prevailing conditions were affecting the country’s food systems with negative impact on all stakeholders, especially the smallholder farmers.
“By building resilience, farmers, processors, and other value chain players will be able to bounce back in the event of upheavals in the agric sector,” Mr Laryea said.
Speaking about the Poultry Intensification Scheme under the FSRP, Mr Laryea said the government is intentional about supporting stakeholders to produce hygienic and nutritious poultry in Ghana to reduce the incidence of importation.
He noted that the capacities of some 22 anchor farmers in the Greater Accra, Eastern, Central, Volta, Ashanti, Bono and Bono East, have been built to use good agricultural practices to produce hygienically tasty poultry for Ghanaians.
“Apart from that these farmers are being given some credit in the form of input like day-old chicks, feed and all other things that will help with production”.
“Within six to seven weeks, the birds must be ready for the table. So, in the coming days, there will be nicely packaged grown-in-Ghana poultry in our supermarkets,” he said.
As part of efforts to encourage high patronage of the grown-in-Ghana poultry, Mr Laryea stated that there would be regional programmes “for people to taste their own type of nutritious quality poultry that we have in the system.”
Ms Alberta Nana Akyaa Akosa, Executive Director, Agrihouse Foundation, called for increased involvement of the youth in transforming the agric sector, including the use of climate smart innovations to achieve food security.
