The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) has held a stakeholder meeting to sustainably increase the production of soyabeans in the northern parts of Ghana.

Other partners of the project are the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), YARA Ghana, and Wageningen University.

The project meeting, dubbed “Soyabean: A Strategic Crop for Poverty Reduction and Enhanced Food Security in Northern Ghana,” is in direct response to meeting the country’s domestic feed requirement for the farmed fish and poultry industries.

The project is to materialize the multiple potential benefits of soyabean to smallholder farmers and other value chain actors engaged in the food and feed sectors in Ghana as well as review the Project which has been in operation for 18 months.

Addressing the meeting, a Deputy Minister for Food and Agriculture, Mohammed Tufero, indicated that the production of soyabeans in Ghana has increased steadily from about 113,000 metric tons in 2009 to a little over 200,000 metric tons in 2020.

He went on to say that domestic demand for soybeans exceeds 300,000 metric tons.

The Norwegian Ambassador to Ghana, Ingrid Mollestad, who spoke on the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation’s support for the Sustainable Soyabean Production in Northern Ghana project, bemoaned the alarming global food insecurity and hunger.

She stated that this is due to the Russia-Ukraine war, which has caused a spike in food prices, and that the most vulnerable are being hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as conflicts and climate change.