FAO Committed To Food Security (Page 6, Jan 19)

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Representative to Ghana, Mr Musa Saihou Mbenga, has stated that the FAO is committed to assisting Ghana in implementing policies to improve food security in the country and also enhance the living standards of poor and vulnerable people, most of who are women.
Making the statement in an address read on his behalf at the 10th anniversary of the Development Action Association (DAA) in Accra, he urged the government to step up efforts to boost marketing of agricultural products by linking small-scale farmers, especially women, to regional, national and global trade systems.
The DAA emerged out of the Freedom from Hunger Campaign and Action for Development programme of the FAO, in the Greater Accra Region, to empower rural women in the area of agriculture.
Mr Mbenga said it was important for the government to modernise agriculture to increase access to support services such as research findings, credit and input supply to add value to crops, fish and animal products.
He said the FAO in collaboration with the DAA introduced modern fish smoking, and also trained women in entrepreneurial skills to help them manage their businesses efficiently.
He said over the years agriculture had played a major role in the development of the country, adding that the sector was the country’s main source of food security.
In a speech read on her behalf, the Minister for Women and Children’s Affairs, Ms Akua Sena Dansua, congratulated the association on its contribution to food security in the country.
She said the association over the years had grown into a viable organisation that had empowered women.
She encouraged women to work selflessly to improve on their living conditions, and to make impacts in their various communities and promised the ministry’s support to the operations of the organisation.
The Executive Director of DAA, Mrs Lydia Sasu, said the organisation was operating in 46 communities in the country with 98 per cent of the beneficiaries being rural women.
She said its main areas of operation included fish processing, cassava production, vegetable production, food crops production and small animals rearing, as well as the provision of micro-credit.
Mrs Sasu said the objectives of the organisation was to initiate a process of development which was based on the transfer of skills and competencies, to provide support and services for its members and to implement sustainable development programmes in the country.
She appealed to the government to support them build a permanent office and improve the road network in the rural areas to help them transport their farm produce.