Togo anticipates over 60,000 tons cereal surplus during 2016-2017 crop year

Togo anticipates, for the crop year 2016-2017, cereal surplus greater than 60,000 tons achieved last year, the Minister of Agriculture, Fishery and Livestock on Monday said.

Colonel Ouro-Koura Agadazi said this in his address to the annual meeting of national storage structures of member-states of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) that holds from 3 to 4 October.

Minister Ouro-Koura Agadazi reinsured delegations of the commitment of Togo to stand in solidarity in providing other countries with food stocks as it did in the past.

"Indeed at the request of the World Food Program (WFP), Togo provided neighboring countries of the sub-region with 30,000 tons stock peak of cereals in 2012 allocated to Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, Ghana and Liberia," he said.

He explained that the implementation of Regional Food Security Reserve System (RRSA) should give to professional farming organizations the chance to find market opportunities, especially to cereal surplus that Togo has been achieving constantly since 2008.

"It stands to reason that Togo has positioned itself as a hub for reserve storage, especially thanks to the know-how and the experience of the Togolese National Food Security Agency (ANSAT)" , Ouro-Koura Agadazi said.

He said there are significant challenges ahead the implementation of the regional reserve, essentially in the harmonized definition of national strategies for security food storage and in the capacity building of national stock managing structures. Enditem