Tamale, Sept. 25, GNA - The Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions are to benefit from a massive accelerated economic programme, which kicks start next year, with the object of transforming the regions into industrial hubs to tackle the grinding poverty levels among the people.

The multi-million -cedi programme to be partly carried under the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) initiative has the vision of creating a green Northern Savannah. Addressing a forum on the Northern Development Agenda in Tamale, Vice President John Dramani Mahama described the proposed programmes as "most ambitious co-ordinated effort towards achieving a forested North by 2030".

It is being pivoted along six broad thematic areas with the intent of bolstering economic activity in the selected regions through modernised agricultural practice to overcome years of under-development, which has spawned high levels of unemployment and poverty among the people.

Vice President Mahama said the SADA strategy was to be used as "one of the major efforts aimed at transforming the structure of the Ghanaian economy", by improving production of food for domestic and export trade. It would also to develop the shea and cotton industries among other interventions to help diversify the economy over a 20-year period. A component of the agenda is to advance the North as a model for the modernisation of agriculture to stimulate farmers to produce, using a marketing based out-grower system with improved technology and timely inputs.

"By this strategy, farmers do not wait to find markets after they have produced, rather the market defines their production targets and quality," Vice President Mahama said. He said a pinnacle of the strategy was the proposed circular road network that would link the three regions to ensure that the large production plains that lied between them were opened up for brisk farming and economic activities.

The circular arterial link road will stretch from Bimbilla through Yendi to Bawku, then spanning Bole-Bamboi, Hamile, Navrongo, Tumu and Wa.

The network will be accompanied by an appropriate irrigation infrastructure, especially drip-irrigation, which can be owned by small-holder farmers to facilitate the cultivation of cereals, fruits and vegetables all- year- round as part of the concept of a green North. Vice President Mahama said it was significant for government to open up Ghana's markets and develop strong linkages between Northern Savannah and the Sahelian countries of Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali and Northern Ivory Coast, to promote regional market for goods and services. Mr S.S. Nayina, Regional Minister, appealed to the people to stop the ethnic and factional conflicts that retard the progress of the area. He observed that there are chieftaincy problems throughout the country but the people do not take to arms. "Why should we (North) be the only part of the country where we resolve our differences through the taking of arms?" he queried.

Dr Emmanuel Akwettey, Executive Director of IDEG, a development think tank, expressed the hope that the new policy initiatives of the government in the North could help to transform the lives of the people. Mr Samuel Zan Akologo, Country Director of SEND Ghana, a non-governmental organisation, which organised the forum, intimated that previous efforts at stimulating development in the North had ended in failure and asked for a paradigm shift that focuses on "empowering the citizens of the area to take ownership of their own development". 25 Sept. 09