ActionAid in collaboration with the Abrono Organic Farming Project (ABOFAP) and Rural Women Farmers Association of Ghana (RUWFAG) has successfully marked the celebrations of this year’s World Farmers Day at Techiman, the Bono East regional capital.
The short but colorful ceremony took place at the forecourt of the Bonokyempem hall with the aim of raising awareness and taking action against global hunger and malnutrition and was attended by over five hundred (500) women form the Bono, Ahafo, Bono East, Northern and Upper East regions.
The year’s World Food Day was celebrated under the them; Foods for a better live future. The event was a resounding success, with attendees and members of ABOFAB and RUWFAG showcasing foodstuff and different local dishes to mark the celebrations.
ActionAid, which is a global justice federation working to achieve social justice, gender equality and poverty eradication while support the basic needs and rights of the poor, with an emphasis on human rights, women’s rights, land rights and the right to education, stressed on the importance of sustainable agriculture and the need for governments and organizations to work together to ensure food security for all.
The Rural Women Farming Association of Ghana, (RUWFAG), which is a member of We Are The Solution, is a Non-Governmental Organization that works together to bring a gender perspective into national processes and advocate for policy change to strengthen women’s human rights aims to promote the wellbeing of women in rural communities especially those into farming.
The event, featured speeches from activists, who shared their experiences and insights on the issue of hunger and malnutrition in the country.
The erstwhile Brong Ahafo Regional Programs Manager for Actionaid, Kwame Afram Denkyira, in an interview with the media disclosed that, food is essential for the survival of mankind. He explained that, his outfit believes that getting access to food as a fundamental human right, however, they advocate for the consumption of balance diets or nutritious food and not just any food.
“When everybody weak in the morning, they will eat before the day ends, meaning we are supposed to get food on daily basis if we don’t eat we will not survive .We see food to be our right as humans when you weak up you are supposed to eat, and we are talking about balance diet, a food full of all the food nutrients.
“We educate them on how our forefathers used to plant, harvest and cook foods that was nutritious and healthy for the upbringing of children and preserving of strength for the ,elderly.” He said
According to him, Techiman and for that matter the Bono East region is the food basket for Ghana hence their reason to hold this year’s World Food Day celebrations in Techiman.
“We decided to bring this program to Techiman is because the Bono East region is the food basket of Ghana, we got a lot of foodstuff from the Bono East region and we deemed it appropriate to hold this year’s program in the Bono East region.” He told the media
Ms. Anita Sutha from the Rural Women Farming Association of Ghana, explained that, women plays critical role in food chain.
According to her, “women, especially those in the rural areas are active in food production, from planting to harvesting and they are the ones that still cooks for us in our homes, so women are very important and therefore needs all the support and attention and that is why RUWFAG supports women.”
The Executive Director of ABOFAP, Nana Kwao Adams, said aside the creation of awareness and taking action against global hunger and malnutrition, the World Food Day also aims to recognize farmers and remind the world about the need to protect the environment
“The aim of this program is to get food for each and every person and for our future to be good hence the celebration of the World Food Day. Yesterday was a day to celebrate rural women farmers, so today, you can see that most of the participants are women because we have women from the Northern part of the country as well as those in the Bono East region.
“Food is very important for the survival of human beings and all other living organisms, we have to ensure that our foods are produce in an hygienic way and we can only do that if we take good care of our environment.
“We are here today to applaud our famers and those that ensure the protection of our environment, we have to be very mindful of how we treat our land.”
He also cautioned farmers to practice good farming methods and desists form weeding into rivers and cutting down trees to clear space for their farming activities.
“In Techiman and Bono East for that matter, there are no galamsay activities but most of our farmers have their farms along river banks and weed into the rivers, some even fell down trees just to get space to grow their farm products and these are very bad practices that we should stop.
“We all have a duty to protect our lands and environment, that is why we are advocating for good agricultural practices as we celebrate World Food Day.”
The leader of the women wing of ABOFAP, Esther Boakye Yiadom, said the Abrono Organic Farming Project, organizes capacity building workshop for women in agriculture to boost their agroecological knowledge.
Esther Boakye Yiadom said; “The role of the women fellowship is to mobilize the women, we also engage in the teaching of agroecological practices to our women, we teach them a lot of things, from the preparing of the lands to harvest,
“Our policy is to eat the food we plant and plant what we eat, so that we will have strength like our great forefathers. We also educate women about good agricultural practices, we manufacture our own fertilizers.
“We usually get complain from the ladies that they find it difficult to sell products form the organic fertilizers but I believe if they come to us, we can teach them how best to market those products. We are calling on all women to join ABOFAP.”
Source: Elvisanokyenews.com
