Empowering cassava value chain; actors to contribute to Food Security

Ghana and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) have launched a Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP) on cassava to enhance food security and incomes in selected cassava growing areas in Ghana.

The growing interest in the cultivation of the crop in recent times can be ascribed to the increasing realisation by government and other stakeholders of its potential as a food security and emergence crop, which could generate employment for the rural poor and foreign exchange for the country.

“The project on Empowering Cassava Value Chain Actors to Contribute to Increased Food, targets vulnerable farming communities particularly small scale farmers, small scale informal processors, cassava aggregators and possibly industrial enterprises engaged in processing cassava,” said Dr L. Thiombiano, FAO Representative in Ghana, at the launching ceremony, at Winneba in the Central Region.

“It will also draw on available information from past and current interventions and would not only aim at increasing cassava production, but also adding value to the produce through improved processing techniques and technologies, strengthened linkages to markets, which will invariably facilitate access to markets, financial credit and improved standard of living of the cassava farmers and processors”, he added.