BROADER CONSULTATION NEEDED TO END BUSHFIRES – UE MINISTER
Thursday, October 14, 2021
The Honourable Upper East Regional Minister, Stephen Yakubu, has called for broader consultations among stakeholders to help eliminate bushfires in the Region.
He said proper stakeholder engagements would provide better understanding on the causes and dire effects of bushfires, and further adopt appropriate policies and programmes to address the undesirable effects of bushfires on the vegetation cover of the Region.
The Minister, who made the call at a stakeholder forum on bushfire management, emphasised that bushfires remained one of the most single factors that posed as threat to food security, across the world.
The forum, held in Bolgatanga, the Upper East Regional capital, was on the theme “Bushfire Management for improved Agricultural outcomes in Northern Ghana.”
It attracted officials from the Ghana National Fire Service, the Ghana Police Service, the Forestry Commission, various Municipal and District Directors of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Traditional Authorities, women groups and the media.
“Bushfires burning in large sizes are highly destructive, they destroy homes, Agricultural farms, uncultivated fallow lands, the forest and food security causing hunger and starvation,” the Honourable Regional Minister said.
He recalled that the 1983 bushfires in Ghana severely threatened food security, adding that apart from the adverse effects on the vegetation cover, bushfires also depleted the nutrients in the soil and affected crop production.
Hon. Yakubu noted that in spite of the several laws and regulations to help curb the occurrences of bushfires, enforcement of these laws and regulations had over the years been the biggest challenge.
“There is the need to re-activate these regulations and put in place systems from the National, Regional, Districts and the community levels with all identified stakeholders,” he said.
The Minister reiterated the need for leaderships across the various Municipal and District Assemblies and the traditional authorities to collaborate and sustain their activities to fight bushfires in the Region.