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| Adopt appropriate policies to modernise agriculture-President Kuffours |
2/12/2012 |
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Former President John Agyekum Kufuor, has called on African Governments to adopt appropriate policies to modernise agriculture and make it attractive for the youth and the educated.
He said although most populations in Africa were engaged in farming, they still use “Centuries-old methods which is difficult, back-breaking, mainly on subsistence basis and therefore did not attract the energetic and educated youth.”
A statement issued in Accra yesterday by Mr Frank Agyekum Spokesperson, Office of former President Kufuor, said the former president said this when addressing the British All Party Parliamentary Group on Agriculture and Food for Development at the British Parliament on “Linking Local Agriculture, Nutrition and Education: Innovations to Improve Food Security.
The forum chaired by Lord Paul Boateng, former MP, former Secretary of the Treasury and former Chief Secretary of the Britain, was organised by the Partnership for Child Development (PCD) and the Imperial College.
President Kufuor said “Africa alone, of all the world’s continents, does not grow enough food to feed itself … more than any continent, Africa needs solutions for its myriad of challenges in agriculture, nutrition, and health.”
He called on African Governments to adopt measures to address these problems since lack of good nutrition had adverse effects on the health and intellectual development of children.
Speakers at the forum included Professor Gordon Conway of International Development and Agriculture for Impact, Professor Don Bundy, Lead Health Specialist, World Bank and Dr Boitshepo Giyose, Food Nutrition Advisor, New Economic Partnership for Africa (NEPAD).
Earlier in the day, President Kufuor held bilateral talks with some British MPs and Government officials including Mr Alan Haselhurst, Chairman of Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, Lady Glennys Kinnock, Shadow Spokesperson for Department of International Development at the House of Lords, and Dr Michael Anderson, Permanent Secretary, Department for International Development (DFID).
He held discussions with the Rector and Senior Staff members of Imperial College and Executives of PCD on possible ways of collaboration with the John A. Kufuor Foundation.
Source: GNA
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