KNUST wins debate on food security by the ballot

Accra, Oct. 13, GNA - The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) on Thursday won by ballot, a debate with the University of Ghana, Legon, on food security organised in connection with this year's World Food Day.

Dr Edward Ackah-Nyamikeh Jnr, Head of the Department of Agricultural Extension, chairing the debate called for the ballot, which eventually gave KNUST the victory, after one-minute each additional statement from the captains of both teams failed to break a tie of 43 points a-piece.

Each of the two teams, parading a captain and two supporting speakers, spoke on the motion "Growing What We Eat, Eating What We Grow and Canning What We Cannot Eat is the Surest Way of Achieving Food Security."

The KNUST team argued on creating an enabling environment to produce enough food to feed the population and preserving them to ensure all year round sustenance, while the University of Ghana students, argued that food security could not be achieved if care was not taken of natural and manmade disasters, wars and other factors that degraded the environment.

The judges, the Rev. Dr Joseph Sarkodie-Addo from KNUST and Dr (Mrs) Irene Egyir of the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, Legon came out with the marks awarded on delivery, accuracy and speed.

Mr Salifu Abdul-Nasser, Department of Horticulture, received the winning prize of 600,000 cedis and a certificate for the KNUST, while Ms. Barbara Kwansema Arthur of the of the Soil Science Department received the second prize of 400,000 for University of Ghana. Ghana would mark this year 25th World Food Day on Monday with a flag-raising ceremony at the forecourt of the State House in Accra and exhibition of local innovative technologies.

This year's celebration, which also marks the 60th anniversary of the founding Food and Agriculture Organisation, is on the theme "Agriculture and Inter Cultural Dialogue-Its Our Common Heritage."