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AGRICULTURE

Talensi MCE calls on citizenry to PFJ seriously

Dr Christopher Boabil Somiteyen, Talensi District Chief Executive has justified the need for the citizenry to take government's intervention on Planting for Food and jobs seriously.

Date Created : 10/12/2018 12:00:00 AM : Story Author : GNA

He said proper and effective involvement of the citizenry to address nutrition problems in the country was extremely essential for the total well-being of the citizens.

He said the intervention, which promoted agriculture was key in ensuring food security in the country and needed the citizens to embrace it to improve on the nutrition status of families and communities.

The Talensi DCE made the justification in an interview with Ghana News Agency in Tongo, and reiterated the need for coordinated efforts to raise the nutrition standards of people in the district.

Responding to issues of malnutrition in the district and how the District Assembly was involving nutrition related interventions in its Medium Term Development Plans, he indicated that eradicating malnutrition depended more on collaborative efforts of stakeholders in Agriculture, health, and education among others and called for intensified education and awareness creation on best practices in nutrition for families.

He said although the Assembly could not specifically allocate a budget for nutrition, he expected sectors in charge of providing such interventions to be forthcoming and ensure they made inputs into the Assemblies budget preparations which was underway.

The DCE who has written extensively on malnutrition in the Talensi area stressed that malnutrition could occur in the midst of plenty food, if the people could not make maximum use of the food they had, and called for education by all key stakeholders to lift the nutritional status of the people in the district.

He said plans were also in place for theAssembly to provide needed support to health providing centres to increaseaccess to health delivery and also enhance economic capacities of women to undertake ventures that would help them take good care of their children.

An Emergency Food insecurity and market assessment report of Ghana by the World Food Programme (WFP) in 2016 indicated that three of the most food insecure districts were in the Upper East Region.

According to the report, prevalence of food insecurity had increased in two of the three regions in the north.

It further stated that in a 2012 Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Analysis (CFSVA) food insecurity increased from nine percent in 2012 to 14 percent in 2016.