Ghana Is Making Progress In Fighting Hunger

Ghana is one out of two countries in Africa to win the prestigious award for notable and outstanding progress in fighting hunger, the Minister of Agriculture, Mr Clement Kofi Humado, has said. In a speech read on his behalf by Dr Dorothy Effah, Senior Agriculture Officer at the Ministry of Agriculture, the Minister said only 18 countries in the world, including Ghana, won that award. Mr Humado made the announcement at the launch of the Ghana Coalition of Civil Society Organizations for Scaling Up Nutrition (GHACCSUN), a group of civil society organizations that advocate that nutrition especially among children and pregnant women should be made a national priority. The Minister, however, noted that a lot of nutrition education and advocacy was needed to ensure that people had adequate knowledge and appreciate the importance of both macronutrients and micronutrients malnutrition. Mr Humando said the Ministry had a medium term investment plan that emphasized that food production systems take into consideration foodstuff with good levels of both micro and macronutrients. �MOFA is promoting the production and consumption of high quality protein maize, orange flesh, sweet potato for vitamin A as well as Moringa and other leafy vegetables,� he said and added that the Ministry was also promoting enrichment of staples during processing. For example, the Minister said, kenkey and gari could be processed with soyabean to balance the nutrition even if the person does not add protein. The Ministry, he said, was also training especially rural communities on appropriate food combination of available foods to improve nutrition through food demonstration and development of recipes. Mr Humado said the Ministry recognized non-state actors like Hunger Alliance and other Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) for the vital role they play in improving nutrition through their programmes nationwide but urged them to ensure that they build the relevant capacities to perform their functions.