Less educated households are more food insecure – Report
The 2020 Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Analysis (CFSVA) Ghana report says less educated households are more food insecure in the country.
The report said the level of food security in relation to households with tertiary educational background were higher, with a corresponding percentage of 92, with a severely food insecurity of as low as 2.1 per cent.
It said meanwhile, “no schooling” households of 70 per cent are food secured with nine per cent challenged with severely food insecurity.
Mr. Peter Takyi Pepprah, Assistant Chief Statistician, Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), said people whose livelihood was predominantly Agric-related, unskilled labour and those dependent on remittance were also more food insecured, transcending to rural food insecurity being relatively higher as compared to the urban centres.
“Looking at the report by urban rural, over 2.8 million of these people are in the rural areas in Ghana and about 800, 000 are in urban areas” he added.
The regional breakdown of the rural food insecurity showed that Upper East, Northeast Region, Northern Region, Upper West, and Savannah Region all in the Norther part of the country, are worst of food insecurity.
H said the finding meant that it was not just the rural areas that were prone to food insecurity but a condition prevalent with the northern part of Ghana.
Mr. Pepprah, therefore, underscored the need for stakeholders to always give attention to the northern part of the country in terms of policy formulation and implementation.
Madam Faustina Frempong-Ainguah, Deputy Government Statistician, said previous recommendations could have made a difference if they were judiciously executed.
She, therefore, charged all stakeholders to be ambassadors of change by ensuring a positive attitude towards improving food security through the implementation of policies.
The report is a periodic research conducted by Ghana Statistical Service in collaboration with World Food Program, Ministry of Food and Agriculture, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
It was first conducted in 2004 and subsequently in 2009, 2012 and its latest edition in 2020.
The research was conducted to address Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) one to three, which are about “no poverty, ending hunger and addressing undernourishment among mothers and children and to ensure that people live healthy lives and reduce child mortality and raise life expectancy” respectively.
The research was conducted in all 260 districts in the country with 65,300 households as samples.
It revealed that 12 per cent of the population of Ghana was facing food insecurity and recommended an all-year-round irrigation and mechanisation schemes to support large- and small-scale farming to engender all year-round food production.
Source: GNA