U/E/R: Stakeholders meeting on food system caravan held

A Cross Section Of Participant At The Stakeholders Meeting

Players in the Agriculture industry have been advised to adopt the practice of Agriculture and the ecology termed “Agricology” in order to preserve the soil that mankind is extracting food from without being mindful of the damage caused to mother earth, for future generations.

This was disclosed by Dr Christian Andres, a Research Scientist, a farmer, founder and the Executive Director of Obbro Binin Peace complex (OBPC), a Non-Governmental Organization in Ghana during a stakeholder meeting on Food System Caravan (FSC) held in Bolgatanga, Capital of the Upper East Region.

The caravan brought together about 51 participants drawn from Policy makers, Academia, Farmer groups youth in Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency.

In an interview with ModernGhana News, Dr Andreas indicated that the concept of FSC came, upon realising that Agriculture is going down in terms of soil management and our food systems are not sustainable.

He added that continuous extraction of resource and polluting the land making the more acidic, which all of us depend on is detrimental.

In view of this, Dr Andreas stated that, through some of the projects that happened under the Swiss programme for global development in the last couple years, he felt the need to document some of the success stories of some of the pioneers in Agricology especially in West Africa so that, "we can learn from them what they are doing, how they are doing their things and then use this knowledge to educate people further about we think is the right thing to do, to care for our land in a sustainable natural and organic way so we could leave the same kind of soil that we are enjoying for our children and the unborn generation."

In line with this, the Executive Director of OBPC said, they travelled through Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Benin and Nigeria documenting some of the success stories of several projects. Those Projects, he explained were on sustainable and organic food systems entailing different aspect from production, marketing value chain, in-puts and traditional food fairs among others that make part of the food system.

Mr Albert Toose, a member of the Food System Caravan, who schooled participants on Organic Market for investment (OMI) said, the OMI is a programme working on a national action plan for Organic Agriculture (OA) in Ghana.

He pointed out that, if Organic Agriculture in Ghana must move forward between five to ten years from now, it is envisaged that a well-functioning organic movement is needed with all the organic stakeholder on board to coordinate and harmonize their involvement, have a group secretariat with all the forces together, with this quality and affordable organic products can be produced.

Apart from that, he added there is the need for local organic markets to be created to also make the products accessible to the consumers as well.

On his part, the Upper East Regional focal person of the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana Rev. John Akaribo stated emphatically that Ghana, for instance, is sitting on a time bomb when it comes to Agricultural productions and land conservation. "Our soils are so eroded and with erratic rainfall as a result of climatic effects."

He added that it is important to revert to our indigenous crops and farming practices that helped the land rejuvenated and promoted sustainable food systems. Rev Akaribo stated that, since the adoption of the use of chemical fertilizers on our farm lands, the soils no longer conserve moisture and dries up easily due to the high levels of acidity in the fertilizer.

A Research Scientist, Farmer, Founder And The Executive Director Of Obbro Binin Peace Complex (obpc), A Non-governmental Organization In Ghana, Dr Christian Andres,

Upper East Regional Focal Person Of The Peasant Farmers Association Of Ghana Rev. John Akaribo