Posted on April, 22, 2024 at 08:59 am
Two-day international seminar for market information on maize and rice in Asia Pacific and Africa has been held at the University of Environment and Sustainable Development (UESD) at Somanya in the Yilo Krobo Municipality.
The seminar, under the auspices of the International Grains Council (IGC) and the Institute for the Development of Agriculture Co-operation in Asia (IDACA), was on the framework of the IGC-IDACA Survey in Asia, Oceania and Africa Japan and was funded by the Government of Japan, 2023 G7 Presidency.
Participants were drawn from Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroun and Congo.
There were keynote presentations and panel discussions in detail on global grains and rice situations.
In an opening remark, the Executive Director for the IDACA, Hirofumi Kobayashi said the IGC and the IDACA signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in 2022 and have been working together since then to improve transparency in the grains market.
That, he said, both parties agreed to launch the research project last year to find out the accessibility of food market information to producers, traders, food processors and consumers, especially those in remote areas who had been affected by price-hikes and market disruptions since 2022.
Mr Kobayashi, who was the lead coordinator for the programme, stated that the IGC and ICADA were working towards enhancing market transparency and preparedness for the food and nutrition crisis, the importance of which was recognised in the G7 Hiroshima Action Statement for Resilient Global Food Security on May 20, 2023.
In a virtual presentation, the Executive Director of the IGC, Arnaud Petit, talking about the global grains situation stressed that maize prices dropped to a 42-month low last February.
Source: Graphic Online