Tongo (UE), Oct. 13, GNA – Dr Christopher
Boabil Somiteyen, Talensi District Chief Executive has justified the need for
the citizenry to take government’s intervention on Planting for Food and jobs
seriously.
He said proper and effective involvement of
the citizenry to address nutrition problems in the country was extremely
essential for the total well-being of the citizens.
He said the intervention, which promoted
agriculture was key in ensuring food security in the country and needed the
citizens to embrace it to improve on the nutrition status of families and
communities.
The Talensi DCE made the justification in an
interview with Ghana News Agency in Tongo, and reiterated the need for
coordinated efforts to raise the nutrition standards of people in the district.
Responding to issues of malnutrition in the
district and how the District Assembly
was involving nutrition related interventions in its Medium Term Development
Plans, he indicated that eradicating
malnutrition depended more on collaborative efforts of stakeholders in
Agriculture, health, and education among others and called for intensified
education and awareness creation on best
practices in nutrition for families.
He said although the Assembly could not
specifically allocate a budget for nutrition, he expected sectors in charge of
providing such interventions to be forthcoming and ensure they made inputs into
the Assemblies budget preparations which was underway.
The DCE who has written extensively on
malnutrition in the Talensi area stressed that malnutrition could occur in the
midst of plenty food, if the people could not make maximum use of the food they
had, and called for education by all key stakeholders to lift the nutritional
status of the people in the district.
He said plans were also in place for the
Assembly to provide needed support to health providing centres to increase
access to health delivery and also enhance economic capacities of women to
undertake ventures that would help them take good care of their children.
An Emergency Food insecurity and market
assessment report of Ghana by the World Food Programme (WFP) in 2016 indicated
that three of the most food insecure districts were in the Upper East Region.
According to the report, prevalence of food
insecurity had increased in two of the three regions in the north.
It further stated that in a 2012 Comprehensive
Food Security and Vulnerability Analysis (CFSVA) food insecurity increased from
nine percent in 2012 to 14 percent in 2016.
GNA