Togo sets out $1 billion food security plan

Togo has launched a one billion-dollar food security scheme with a view to attaining self-sufficiency by 2015.

Analysts have already described the plan as “the boldest and most ambitious” yet undertaken by any government in the sub region.

The country is among the five smallest in West Africa, with a population of less than five million which lives basically on rice, maize, millet and cassava all of which can abundantly be grown there.

Togo like most countries in the sub region has been highly dependent on imported agricultural products.

Launching the long-awaited scheme in the capital Lomé on Monday, agriculture ministry officials said the scheme would ensure an agricultural growth rate of six per cent up from 2 per cent by 2015.

The scheme will be piloted by the national agriculture investment programme for food security which recently received about $150 million dollars from donors.

In order to attain self-sufficiency in food production, the programme is expected to invest massively in conservation techniques and mechanise archaic traditional methods, analysts said.

Officials said the project will also seek the transformation of raw agricultural products into finished goods including flour, vegetable oil as well as canned food that could eventually be exported for more earnings.