Livestock Project to reduce meat imports

Kumasi, Aug. 3, GNA - Mr Ernest Debrah, Minister of Food and Agriculture, has said that the National Livestock Development Project currently being implemented was aimed at improving food security and reducing imports of animal products in an environmentally sustainable manner.

He noted that the project was expected to increase incomes of smallholder livestock and dairy farmers, processors and traders in 25 selected districts in seven regions of the country. Mr Debrah announced this in a keynote address read for him at the opening of the 15th biennial conference and 22nd Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Ghana Society of Animal Production (GSAP) in Kumasi on Thursday.

The three-day conference on the theme: "Moving the Animal Industry Production Forward-The Role of Agriculture Extension", has attracted over 70 delegates from all over the country.

He said the project had helped to re-stock the animal production stations with breeding animals, adding that the ministry was willing to collaborate with relevant research institutions and members of the GSAP to solve researchable issues identified within the project and to effectively communicate such results to farmers.

Mr Debrah stated that the ministry had taken the initiative of improving range lands by over-sowing them with legumes and creating communal grazing areas to reduce or eliminate the emerging conflicts between livestock and crop farmers.

The Minister expressed concern over the recent outbreak of Bird Flu and said the situation had caused havoc to poultry farmers and input suppliers because of the reduced demand for poultry products.

He appealed to researchers, members of the GSAP and other stakeholders to come out with suggestions to help address such problem and improve productivity and agriculture as a whole in the country. Mr Debrah also said the government's economic development programmes aimed at creating wealth and improving the welfare of Ghanaians, especially through private sector participation, adding that Food and Agriculture Development Project (FASDEP) would accelerate agricultural development beyond six per cent.

Professor Kwasi Kwarfo Adarkwa, Vice-Chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), in a speech read for him, appealed to GSAP to use the period to take stock of its activities and adopt effective measures to improve animal production at the subsistence level to a commercial level.