Coronavirus will not cause food shortage - Francis Dogbese

The Municipal Agriculture Director for the Kwahu West Assembly, Mr Francis Dogbese, has stated that his office has worked hard with maximum support from the city authorities to ensure there is more than enough food for residents of the municipality during and after the coronavirus pandemic.

He also stated that even though the pandemic is prevalent, its impact has not, in any way, affected their activities.

"Due to the government's flagship Planting for Food and Jobs policy which is in its fourth year, the municipality has, in stock, most of the staples available for consumption from what was secured last year. Talk of maize, rice, (both local and imported) yam, cocoyam, cassava, gari, dry ‘kokonte’ powder, beans, groundnut, pepper, onion, tomatoes, garden eggs and many others are all available in stock with no indication of shortages," he told Class News’ regional correspondent Nana Kwame Andoh.

According to Mr Dogbese, aside from the availability of these foodstuffs, most of the farmers have already planted their seeds and applied fertilisers because this is the major season and, therefore, new crops are also being cultivated for future consumption.

The director, however, indicated that despite the aforementioned successes, one thing that remains a challenge is the presence of fall armyworms, which are destroying hectors of maize farms in the municipality.

"One major threat to food security in the municipality is fall armyworms which are destroying maize farms but thankfully, our parent ministry, through its plant protection and regulatory services directorate has issued an alert on what we should do and supplied some base chemicals to be distributed to farmers to mitigate the situation as soon as possible," he added.