8000 Farmers benefit from school feeding Programme

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13-01-09

ABOUT 8000 small-scale farmers from across the country are being provided with ready markets through the supply of foodstuffs for the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP), the National Coordinator of the GSFP, Mr Michael Nsowah, has disclosed.
The farmers generate incomes through the supply of locally grown foodstuffs for the preparation of meals for the more than 600,000 pupils who are currently benefiting from the programme.
Mr Nosh told the Daily Graphic yesterday that the purchase of the foodstuffs from the local farmers for the preparation of meals was to help create a ready market for their produce.
The programme provides pupils in primary schools and kindergartens with one hot nutritious meal every school day.
The GSFP is an initiative of the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme Pillar Three, which seeks to enhance food security and reduce hunger in line with the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on hunger, poverty and malnutrition.
The objectives include contributing to the reduction of short-term hunger and malnutrition, improving enrolment, attendance and retention in school, as well as improving performance and increasing domestic food production.
Mr Nsowah noted that a number of initiatives such as the introduction of a quota system had helped to streamline the programme.
Previously, he said, the allocation was done on school basis and that every district was made to select certain schools for the programme.
That, he said, resulted in complaints as the population of schools in less-populated areas were far less than schools in densely populated areas, creating false impression that the areas with lesser population was being discriminated against.
Mr Nsowah said the quota system was adopted to ensure the fair distribution of beneficiaries across the country, saying that the programme was meant to encourage children in deprived areas to go to school.
The programme, he said, was bent on achieving its target of more than one million pupils next year.
He said monitoring and sanction procedures had been put in place to ensure that caterers delivered according to laid down rules and regulations to ensure that the meals prepared by caterers were nutritious and hygienic.
For instance, the GSFP terminated the contract of three caterers last year for poor preparation of meals.
The GSFP began in 2005 with 10 pilot schools; one from each of the 10 regions. By August 2006, it had been expanded to 200 schools covering 69,000 pupils in the then 138 districts with a plan to reach 500 schools and 155,000 children.
Presently, the GSFP covers about 987 schools throughout the country. The first phase of the programme is to operate for four years (2007 to 2010) by which time 1, 040,000 pupils would have benefited.