He said there was a gap between education and farming; and educated youth tend to shy away from farming simply because they had gone to school.

“Farming pays more than any other job but today, the youth shy away from it because they have not properly understood the concept of farming very well,” he said.

Alhaji Sulemana said this at the first Upper West Food Day held at Jirapa in the Jirapa District of the Upper West Region.

The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) and Yara, an agro input organisation jointly organised the day to coincide with the 71st World Food Day Celebration.

Alhaji Sulemana called on stakeholders to pool resources to support farmers and livestock producers to help increase their scales for production to meet the growing demand for food and meat.

He said the designation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 13 which was aimed at taking urgent action to combat climate change and its impact was a clear demonstration of the global commitment to dealing with climate change and its impact.

He said government had developed and launched a National Climate Change Policy (NCCP) and had started its implementation across the entire country to address the teething challenges of climate change in all sectors of the economy.

Mr. Kwaku Minka Fordjour, the Upper West Regional Director of MoFA, said the day was an event meant to drum home the need to increase food productivity.

He said globally, about 800 million people did not have access to food, and this needed concerted efforts from all stakeholders to address the challenge.

Mr. Fordjour said the Upper West Region was faced with a double edged challenge which included low soil fertility and a single farming season which hindered its quest to increase food production in the region.

Dr. Abebe Hankore, Head of Sub/Area Office of the World Food Programme (WFP), said research reveals that a significant percentage of the food produced often got lost at the dining table.

He urged all to share their food with others if they genuinely believed they could not finish what was served them to prevent wastage.

The global theme for this year’s World Food Day celebration is: “Climate is Changing, Food and Agriculture must too” while the sub theme for the regional celebration is: “Building Resilience in Food Security, a Prerequisite for Social Development”.

GNA