Ghanaians spend 10.3 per cent of their annual income on alcohol and tobacco, a survey has revealed. A mere 4.5 per cent of annual earnings is spent on food and other beverages. Prof. Kofi Awusabo Asare of the Department of Population and Health at the University of Cape Coast, gave the statistics when he delivered a public lecture organised by the Spiritan University College at Ejisu in the Ashanti Region. According to Joy News’ Seth Kwame Boateng, the Professor expressed concern that only 3.9 per cent of the country’s total earnings, according figures from the Ghana Statistical Service, was spent on food production, blaming what he called the worsening poverty situation on the little attention paid to issues relating to food production. Prof. Asare was of the view that state intervention in reducing poverty will produce little if any results at all, if the situation is not reversed. Some parts of the country are reeling under what can best be described as debilitating poverty. People of the Upper West Region for example are said to be swimming in a deep sea of misery and squalor as about 79 per cent of them are extremely poor, statistics as of 2006 say. That situation, Prof. Asare states, must be reversed calling on religious leaders to use their pulpits to preach and teach the concepts of saving to their followers. Story by Malik Abass Daabu/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana