Agricultural enthusiast, Mr. Kareem Amadu has urged Ghanaians to practice and uphold backyard farming to promote household food security.
Speaking with Agriwatchgh news, Mr. Amadu said, food security begins from the home at the individual level before expanding to the community and national level. He said, individuals are responsible for securing their homes in terms of food availability, making it pertinent for individuals to practising home gardening as a key way of providing food for their homes.
According to him, Ghana’s population is rapidly growing daily which requires all resources to correspond to cater for the needs of the citizens. He emphasized that, Ghanaians must develop interest in farming which results in many benefits including securing their homes with enough to feed their homes and their communities.
He reiterated that home gardening helps to prevent over spending on food and streamlining your budget to cater for other essentials. “I have not be spending much on food because I have a lot at home. I have tomatoes, onion, pepper, garden eggs, cabbage, carrot, lettuce, cassava, plantain, cocoyam and others all in my house.”
He conveyed that the Government of Ghana spends so much to import food into the country to feed homes, which is a signal of how insecure we are as a country, calling on all Ghanaians to act quickly by making a backyard farming an alternative and a priority.
“Government spent about GHC38.95 billion in 2024 alone to import food stuff we could afford planting in our country. We must learn to change our story and it begins with you and I, we must do the little that we can to feed our homes.”
Mr. Amadu entreated Ghanaians to intentionally commit to this act by leaving out space for this purpose, and avoid tilling all their home environment.
He stated that food security should not solely be a responsibility of commercial farmers but a basic action to be taken by every citizen. Mr. Amadu believes that, “with this approach we all can help to prevent famine and make it a thing of the past”
Mr. Amadu referenced the “Operation Feed Yourself” policy and described the Acheampong era as “one of Ghana’s best moments of food security because everybody had enough to eat from their home gardens, freeing the government from food importation.” He advised the Mahama-government to reintroduce this policy to save the country’s cost on food importation.
He therefore called on government to support farmers with seed and also seek to its price reduction to facilitate moderate farming and food availability.
