Ghana's Akufo Addo says plans are underway to make country food self-sufficient

40 percent of Ghana food productions are lost annually due to difficulties in addressing post-harvest challenges.

This according to the world food programme can only be reduced by investing in food processing and storage facilities across the country.

Ghana’s president, Nana Akufo Addo, says plans are on-going to make Ghana food self-sufficient and reduce the huge food import bills.

The UN sustainable development goal 2, seeks sustainable solutions to end hunger in all its forms and to achieve food security by 2030.

The aim is to ensure that everyone everywhere has enough good-quality food to lead a healthy life.

Achieving this goal will require better access to food and the widespread promotion of sustainable agriculture.

This entails improving the productivity and incomes of small-scale farmers by promoting equal access to land, technology and markets, sustainable food production systems and resilient agricultural practices.

It also requires increased investments through international cooperation to bolster the productive capacity of agriculture in developing countries.

However, a research into food security in Ghana and African showed high level of post-harvest losses.

"When you look at production it has increased a lot, but if you look at the losses out of production it is huge. About 40 perfect of food being produced in Ghana is lost and this is the average in Africa", said WFP Regional Director in charge for West and Central Africa, Adbou Deing.

Speaking on the side-line of the launch of Ghana zero hunger strategic review report, world food programme regional director for west and central Africa, Adbou Dieng, called for appropriate investment in agriculture.

President, akufo-addo, noted, Ghana can overcome food insecurity if it wean itself from over reliance on food importation.

"Government’s vision is to modernise agriculture, improve production efficiency, achieve food security and profitability for our farmers all aimed at significantly enhancing agricultural productivity. The basic objective of policy is to guarantee food self-sufficiency", he said.

Lead convener of the zero hunger strategic review, former president John Agyekum Kufuor beliefs successes chalked so far is largely due to the policy.

The report identified lack of ready markets, lack of knowledge among policy makers on gender roles and made several recommendations including a strong multi-sectoral approach to help address them.