President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Ado has launched the Rearing for Food and Job Program in the Upper West Region with a call on the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to embark on effective dissemination of information of the program.
He said it is only through effective access of information on the initiative that all other stakeholders can do their bit to ensure the success of the program.
The launch of the program actualizes and puts an icing on the cake of the announcement by the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori Atta last November during the reading of the 2019, budget that government was going to begin the livestock model of the Planting for Food and Jobs known as the ‘Rearing for Food and Jobs’.
The Rearing for food and jobs which is MoFA’s five year program running from 2019 -2023 seeks to develop a competitive and more efficient livestock industry that increases domestic production, reduces importation of livestock products and contributes to employment generation.
The RFJ focuses on developing six key value chains which are sheep, goats, pigs, cattle, poultry and guinea fowl.
The Upper West Regional Minister, Dr. Hafiz Bin Salih was very thankful to the President for launching the programme in the region and said he was hopeful the programme will be one of the most successful in the agricultural sub sector.
The National Vice President Council of Fulanis Ghana Osman Bin Ahmed challenged the Ghana immigration service to do its work properly by screening nomadic Fulanis to prevent them from entering the country without appropriate documentation.
The Minister of Food and Agriculture Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto was very happy about the commitment of Fulanis to help improve the meat sub-sector of the country.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said over the last two decades Ghana’s livestock kept on declining and the situation has forced many livestock breeders out of business.
This has in a way resulted in the country importing meat annually to the tune of four hundred million dollars. President Akufo-Ado therefore expressed government’s commitment to reverse the situation by making sure that all the constraints of the RFJ are addressed.
President Akufo-Addo said at the end of the five year program 40 thousand five hundred ruminants, 38 thousand pigs, 258 thousand cockerels and over six hundred and sixty thousand Guinea fowls are expected to be distributed to livestock farmers and would-be farmers throughout country.
Story by Emmanuel Mensah-Abludo
