Francis Npong, Acccra, Ghana: The president of the Republic of Ghana president John Draimani Mahama has said that root and tuber crops provide great opportunities for long-term poverty alleviation and food security in Africa and urged researchers to focus on the development of these crops to help reduce poverty among poor and vulnerable families in Africa.
According to the president improving competitiveness of root and tuber crops would help reduce poverty not only in Ghana but Africa at large. He said about that 80 percent of people living in rural communities depended on agriculture as a source of livelihood in which root and tuber constitute the chunk of food stuff consumed.
“Root and tuber crops (sweet potato, cassava, and yams) provide great opportunities for long-term poverty alleviation and food security much more than any other staple foods produced in the African, Caribbean and Pacific regions,”, said the president.
Delivering a speech on behalf of the president at the 12th Symposium organized by the International Society for Tropical Root Crops-Africa Branch (ISTRC-AB) in Accra by Mr. Mohammed Alfa, the Deputy Minister of Environment Science and Technology the president said root and tuber crops have the potential to increase food security.
The 12th ISTRC Symposium was supported by the government of Ghana, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), IITA, CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Banana, Harvest Plus, African Development Bank-funded Support for Agricultural Research and Development of Strategic Crops (SARD SC) project, IITA-Yams Improvement for Incomes and Food Security in West Africa (YIIFSWA), Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), National Root Crops Research Institute, Umudike; the Federal Government of Nigeria, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Potato Center (CIP) among other organizations and aimed to develop agriculture in Africa.
Dr. Richard Okechuku, IITA Cassava project Coordinator
The symposium provided opportunity to scientists and development partners to re-examine the competitiveness of root and tuber crops to harness their potential to accelerate Africa economic growth and food security.
Dr Nzola Mahungu, ISTRC-AB President, said, “Root and tuber crops play an important role in ensuring food security in Africa, and we must tap the opportunities of these crops to increase food security in Africa”
He said the root and tuber crops are widely consumed across Africa and could play a key role in providing incomes generation for farmers. According to him, cassava as a tuber crop was a source of livelihood for over 300 million people in Africa but was less affected by climate change.
He said the root crops have become increasingly important because its ability to withstand drought and grow on soils with marginal fertility. “But the potentials of these crops are yet to be fully exploited,” Dr Mahungu pointed out.
The Deputy Director General (Partnerships and Capacity Development) of IITA, Dr Kenton Dashiell stressed that mobilizing investors for sustainable root and tuber crops research and development was crucial to the fight against food insecurity in Africa. He said the rising unemployment food insecurity could easily be solved by harnessing full potentials of root and tuber crops. “If properly harnessed, the root and tuber crops development can help to enagege the number of unemployed youths in the continent”, he said.
He called on scientists to ensure that their research outputs were creating the desired change both the community and farm levels and address the constraints in agriculture development.
people picking pieces of broken Yams after accident
The programme that brought over 200 local and international scientists, donors, farmers, and other development partners also discussed interesting topics including African root crops trade and market scenarios, Policies favorable to competitiveness of root crops in Africa, African scenario on production and utilization of root and tuber crops, Business and investment scenarios on competitiveness of root crops in Africa—benchmarking Latin American, Asian and European markets (Learning from Latin American, Asian & European industries).
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