The Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has called for a coordinated effort among countries in the sub-region to strategize on achieving sustainable food security.
He indicated that addressing agricultural challenges in the region would depend on the political commitment of the countries and how they prioritized agriculture. Some challenges he noted include financing, floods, drought, pest and disease control; climate change variabilities and post-harvest losses.
“Political commitment is the only way to salvage our countries from rudimentary systems of production and ensure high yields and large-scale outputs of our food crops.”
Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, Vice President
Dr Bawumia said statistics showed that the number of people facing food insecurity in the sub-region has increased from two million to 27 million in the last seven years, as of the end of the last cropping season. He described the situation as unacceptable especially when agriculture offers the best hope of liberating our economies from the chronic malaise.
“Our countries are endowed with virtually all the resources needed to propel economic development, with agriculture as the major driving force. We have arable land, human resource, water bodies, varieties of food crops and a relatively favourable climate condition. We, therefore, have no excuses.”
Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, Vice President
The Vice President said the plan to build a strategic food storage system for the sub-region is a step in the right direction towards addressing the dire situation of emerging hunger facing the people. However, he underscored the need for finance in achieving the laudable objective towards sustainable food security. He, therefore, expressed appreciation to the donor community and development partners for their support.
The Vice President made these statements whilst addressing the closing session of a two-week International conference on West Africa food security storage system in Accra yesterday.
Commitments towards Food security
The ECOWAS Member States’ Agriculture Ministers have agreed to work towards adequate food reserves at the local, national, and regional levels to ensure food security in the sub-region. They noted that strategic food reserves are important resilience instruments for contributing to the food sovereignty of the Sahel and West African people.
Dr Afriyie Akoto, Ghana’s Agric Minister, therefore, said it is important to invest in storage infrastructure, logistics, food processing and nutritional food production capacity development. He is also the Chairman of the ECOWAS Specialized Ministerial Technical Committee.
As a result, the Ministers decided to develop and expand a national food security stock while maintaining the “grain for grain” reimbursement concept from the regional stock to ensure its long-term viability. Also, they would encourage trade between food deficit and surplus countries within the ECOWAS, in compliance with the principle of free movement of goods.
Dr Akoto added that the Ministers had also pledged to contribute 5% of their national stock to the Network of Companies in Charge of the Management of National Food Security Stocks in the Sahel and West Africa in solidarity with the Member States facing severe food crises.
On his part, Mr Sekou Sangare called for strengthening of the decision-making and information system to improve national agricultural production. According to him, this would help to limit or avoid the dependence on the international market. Mr Sekou Sangare is the ECOWAS Commissioner for Agriculture, Environment and Water Resources.
Read also: Cement manufacturers charged to patronise local raw materials
