Ghana�s preparation towards this year�s World Food Day on October 16, has began in earnest with Government calling on the National Planning Committee to ensure that their activities create major impacts on the lives of poor farmers and the hungry in society.
Making the call at the maiden meeting of the Planning Committee in Accra on Thursday, Nii Amasah Namoale, Deputy Minister of Food and
Agriculture (MOFA) in charge of Fisheries, charged members to create more Telefood events that would leave significant milestones as far as
World Food Day is concerned in the country.
�It is important that we in Ghana make the celebration of World Food Day an event that will better support the poor farmer and the hungry
person in society so that each year we can count our achievements and improve on them,� he said.
Telefood is an initiative intended to be a long-term endeavour that consists mainly of a series of television events organized simultaneously at the national level and internationally from Rome. The objectives are
to raise awareness on food security and to mobilize resources to support the poor.
The Deputy Minister noted that Telefood events should be taken seriously in Ghana and by the National Planning Committee so that the
celebration of World Food Day did not become a one off event every year.
�Uniting for Hunger is the theme for this year�s World Food Day, which will be climaxed with a flag raising ceremony in Accra on October 16th in addition to other major events that the Planning Committee is expected to introduce.
Mr Godfrey Baidoo-Tsibu, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) representative on the Planning Committee, indicated that the population of hungry people worldwide kept increasing, saying currently over one billion people go to bed hungry.
He said this year�s theme was therefore appropriate since a united front was needed at the national level to fight hunger and ensure food sufficiency to people.
Mr Yaw Effah-Baifi, Deputy Minister of MOFA in charge of Crops is the chair for the Planning Committee, which comprised representatives from
MOFA, FAO, World Food Programme, the media, Food and Drugs Board, Ghana Farmers Wives Association, Ghana Education Service, Ghana National Association of Farmers and Fishermen, Amen Amen Institute, and the National Farmers and the Fishers Winners Association.
FAO's member countries on its 20th General Conference began the celebration of World Food Day in 1979. Since then the day has been
observed every year in more than 150 countries, highlighting awareness of the issues behind poverty and hunger.
The objectives of World Food Day include stimulating national, bilateral, transnational and non-governmental initiatives on food
security and to catapult economic and technical coordination among developing nations.
It is also to enhance the participation of rural people, particularly women and the under privileged strata, in decisions and events
impacting their living conditions and revitalize international and national solidarity in the combat against hunger, malnutrition and poverty and attract attention to accomplishments in food.