Living to see the next 35 years should come as a blessing but what about starving beyond that? You should blame the real estate developers and their cohorts in the habit of selling all our lands off – this is according to Mr. Shakespeare Dzokoto, an Agric consultant.
Mr. Dzokoto was responding to a report made by top US scientist, Fred Davies that the world is most likely to face food shortage by the year 2050, some 35 years away from today. He did not just agree with the report but stressed that Ghana stands the risk of experiencing hunger even earlier than 2050 if present circumstances that contribute to the threat continue.
Limiting himself to the Ghanaian situation, the agric consultant blamed everybody responsible for the sale of reserved lands to estate developers for purposes other than farming. He said we continue to look on as the problem stares us in the face and that it shouldn’t be only after our people begin starving that we will begin taking steps to solve our problem.
He lamented that, young people of today have shied away from farming and instead focusing on white collar jobs with the intention of making quick wealth, leaving only the aged in this venture. According to him, another problem threatening our food security is that some of our lands are simply not good for farming activities.
Jumping on genetically modified foods (GMOs), Mr. Dzokoto dismissed that as the solution to the impending food shortage, stressing further that its effects on us could be fatal. He advised that , its high time we concentrated on the problems acing the agric sector rather suggesting solutions that are not feasible . “Only ignorant people will call for GMOs,” he added.
On the issue of the national buffer stock, he pointed out that it can’t be the solution either since we don’t even treat our stocks to last beyond three months. He said that our foreign counterparts are able to stock their food reserves for up to three years and that we better take cue from them.
Source: ritefmonline.org
