Accra, June 7, GNA - Mr Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development on Sunday reiterated government's commitment to increase national food production to sustain the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP).

Mr Ankrah said the ruling National Democratic Congress aims at reaching one million school children by the end of the year through the GSFP. He was speaking at a fundraising ceremony in Accra to end child hunger in Accra, organised by the World Food Programme to raise money and awareness to feed hungry Children.

It was on the theme: "Fight hunger or end hunger." Mr Ankrah said: "The home-grown school feeding programme increases school attendance and enrolment and acts as an effective outlet for food produced by our farmers."

He expressed the need for Ghana to work extra hard to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) related to reducing hunger and improving health and education by 2015.

Mr Nguyen Duc Hoang, Head of Programme of WFP said the programme is working with the government, non-governmental organisations and the donor community to achieve the MDG targets. He said WFP provides nutritious meals to more than 20 million pupils globally.

Mr Duc said the WFP is working with GSFP and Ghana Education Service to support 130,000 pupils in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions. He pledged the commitment of the programme to support government to expand coverage of the GSFP by identifying and targeting food insecurity among children. Mr Duc said in 2008 and 2009 WFP purchased agricultural produce worth 10 million dollars from Ghanaian farmers. 7 June 10