Despite riots in several Afr ican countries because of rising food prices and cost of living, Ghana declared on Thursday that there is more than enough for its 22 million people to eat. Food and Agriculture Minister Ernest Debrah said there was enough food surplus in most of the regions to be shared with others that recorded deficits. He told a press conference in Accra that apart from the Greater Accra Region, wh ich recorded deficit in all the major food items, all other regions had enough reserve to be transported to fill the gap. Debrah said apart from rice, millet and sorghum the country produced in excess of the national demand all other major staple foods. Ghana’s other main staples include yam, cocoyam, cassava and maize. The world food situation has been worsening in recent times with rising food pri ces, especially for cereals. In 2007 for instance, there was an average of about 35 per cent increase in prices of major foodstuffs over 2006 prices caused mainly by supply and demand factors, climatic change, competing demand for land for the production of bio-fuels and increasing prices of agro inputs, particularly fertilizers. Debrah said the Ministry of Food and Agriculture was interacting with the market women and transport owners to find ways of minimizing the effect of transport costs on food prices. “We are also collaborating with the security agencies to ensure that food is not smuggled out of the country,” he said. Debrah said the Ministry was proposing legislation to make flour mills incorporate 20 per cent of high quality cassava flour into bread and pastry flour. “The Ministry is also looking at the possibility of producing maize flour for corn bread,” he said. Panapress.
