He said “we cannot continue to do farming the usual way, where it becomes a family cycle, we need our youth to venture into commercial farming to earn decent living as well as produce enough to provide nutritious food for families especially in the rural areas”.

The World Hunger Day was instituted by the Hunger Project in 2011, with the aim of creating awareness on hunger and entrenching sustainable solutions to hunger and poverty and this year’s celebration was on the theme: “Fostering self-reliance and upholding principles of human dignity”.

Mr Afrane said statistics indicates that the average age of a farmer in Ghana was 56 years and 50 per cent of hungry people the world were mainly farming families who do subsistence farming and so get low produce. He said in order to improve food production and incomes from farming, the Hunger Project Ghana, has trained 451 volunteers in all its 45 epicentres across the country, to provide basic extension services to the communities within the epicentres.

Mr Afrane urged the farmers to adhere to the best practices and procedure being taught by both the agriculture extension officers and their volunteers to improve on their farming activities.

Mr Samuel Ofosu, an officer of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), said in order to end hunger and poverty, government has instituted several interventions such as the “planting for food and jobs “programme and advised the farmers to contact the Agriculture extension officers for more information and assistance.

Nana Owusu Atramah, the Chief of Kyempo, also emphasised on the need for the youth to venture into agriculture to create employment opportunities for them adding that he was ready to provide farmlands for the youth.