The Upper East Regional Director of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Francis Ennor, has expressed the belief that the Rearing for Food and Jobs programme would empower many families in the beneficiary districts and further reduce poverty levels.
According to him, the five-year programme would facilitate the breeding of selected livestock to serve as a base for raw material for meat processors and other businesses along the value chain.
Mr. Ennor was speaking in an interview with the DGN Online in Bolgatanga, ahead of the implementation of the Rearing for Food and Jobs in the Upper East Region.
In the Upper East Region, four districts and one municipality namely Bongo, Nabdam, Bawku West, Kessana-Nankana West Districts and Kassena-Nankana Municipal, have been selected to benefit from the pilot phase of the programme, which was launched in Wa, the Upper West Regional capital, by the President Nana Akufo-Addo on June 25, 2019.
The programme comes just a little over two years since the commencement of the Planting for Food and Jobs initiative which has supported many farmers to improve on their yield and incomes.
According to the Upper East Regional MoFA Director, the Rearing for Food and Jobs programme would support farmers with services and other resources to breed some livestock namely Cattle, Sheep, Goat, Pig, Guinea Fowl and poultry fowl for large scale processing to feed Ghanaians.
“By the end of the five years, that’s from 2019 to 2023 government intends to support more farmers to produce more of the selected livestock to serve as resource base for new processing factories that will be established by investors and other existing ones that will be revamped to process these animals for domestic and industrial consumption,” Mr. Ennor said.
Like the Planting for food and Jobs programme, Mr. Ennor hinted that beneficiaries of the Rearing for Food and Jobs would also be registered ahead of release of government’s support, but more emphasis would be on farmers with sustainable business plans and are working towards rearing any of the selected animals on a commercial scale.
