Accra, Oct. 27, GNA - A three-day sub-regional workshop on trade and food security opened in Accra on Monday with a call on West African States to network and research into improving crop production to increase food production.

Mr Kwadwo Affram Asiedu, Deputy Minister of Trade, Industry and President's Special Initiative, (PSI) who made the call, said it was possible for West African countries to set up a development agency to improve upon farming practices and research into staple foods to develop high yielding crops and improved varieties to deal with food scarcity. The Deputy Minister told the meeting, attended by delegates from the Sub-Region, that food security and international trade negotiation had taken centre stage at various international forums because of the central role of food security in good governance.

He said it was important when dealing with issues involving food security that developing countries did not bow to pressures from rich countries during trade negotiations to the neglect of the welfare of their citizenry.

He said the breakdown of talks over agricultural subsidies during the Cancun Talks in Mexico at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting was a good sign that poor nations were ready to hold their own in trade negotiations.

The meeting is being organised by the General Agricultural Workers' Union (GAWU) and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.

Mr Asiedu said the government had adopted a policy to reduce by 30 per cent the importation of rice to conserve foreign exchange and boost food production.

He said the PSI and the establishment of the Rural Enterprise Development Programme within the Trade Ministry were directed at addressing food security problems.

Mr Samuel Kangah, General Secretary of GAWU, said agriculture was key to reducing poverty and, therefore, the rules governing trade in the Sector deserved special attention within the WTO and other bilateral trade negotiations.

He said the link between trade and poverty is becoming both clearer and at the same time more obscure. "Trade is a key and decisive factor in keeping an individual, a community and a nation in or out of poverty." Mr Kangah called on African countries to move away from being importers of food since the continent was capable of "producing enough for export."

He said although rice was cultivated in the 17 West African countries, it was sad to find farmers in the Region having to compete for markets because of rice importation. He said it was for this reason that GAWU together with OXFAM was researching into the implications of international trade in oil palm production in the country and the reasons why Ghana could not produce enough for both local consumption and export.