400 farmers receive 2000 sheep in Tamale

Four hundred farmers drawn from 19 communities of four local authorities in the three northern regions have received 2000 sheep under the Joint Government of Ghana – United Nations (UN)Human Security Programme.

The four local authorities are the Tamale Metropolis, and Yendi Municipality in the Northern Region, Bawku Municipality in the Upper East Region and Wa Municipality in the Upper West Region.

The Joint Government of Ghana – UN Human Security Programme is being jointly implemented by six UN Agencies in Ghana including FAO, UNDP, UNIDO, UNICEF, WFP, and UNU, and seeks to empower local institutions, communities and individuals to manage and prevent conflict in Northern Ghana as a means to ensuring sustainable human security in the three northern regions.

The delivery of the animals, which falls within the fourth objective of the programme, that is improvement of agricultural productivity and nutritional status for enhanced food security, followed months of careful participatory selection and technical training of all 400 beneficiaries in all the 19 programme communities.

Madam Ruby Sandhu-Rojon, UN Resident Coordinator, and Mr Musa Saihou Mbenga, FAO Country Representative symbolically handed over the animals to government officials from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, and the Northern Regional Coordinating Council who in-turn handed them over to the Metropolitan and Municipal Chief Executives for onward distribution to beneficiary farmers at a ceremony in Tamale on Wednesday.

Madam Sandhu-Rojon said the programme had identified livestock production as having the potential to enhancing the nutritional status of the household whiles sustaining the income security of beneficiaries.

She said the delivery of the animals to the beneficiaries was also expected to enhance peaceful coexistence and relationship building through regular interactions.

She bemoaned the incidence of conflicts in the three northern regions and expressed the hope that as residents got engaged in productive ventures, poverty levels would reduce, thereby ending such conflicts.

She reminded the people of the December elections and called on them to play their respective roles to ensure that peace prevailed before, during and after the elections.

Mr Mbenga called on all to shun conflicts and redirect their energies towards agricultural production for economic development.

Mr San Nasamu Asabigi, Deputy Northern Regional Minister, reminded beneficiary farmers of their responsibility to manage the animals and hand over the same quantity of animals for others to benefit.

In an address read on his behalf, Mr Kwesi Ahwoi, Minister of Food and Agriculture said government was implementing a number of strategies to increase livestock production and improve the availability of good quality chicken meat on the local market.

He said the delivery of the animals to the farmers would not only provide them with wealth and job opportunities but also be a catalyst in the creation of an enabling environment to manage and prevent conflicts.

Alhaji Mustapha, a beneficiary, thanked the Joint UN Human Security Programme implementers for the initiative and pledged on behalf of his colleagues to rear the animals well to meet the objectives of the programme.