Accra, July 19, GNA- Mr Kwadwo Asante, Chairman of Ghana National Association of Poultry Farmers, on Tuesday called for the extension of the recently initiated Agricultural Insurance to maize and soya farmers in the northern sector.

He also called for the extension of the facility to cover livestock and poultry production to serve as a booster to farmers in that sector.

Mr Asante, who made this call in a press statement signed and copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra, said Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions were the highest producers of maize, while the three Northern regions also had comparative advantage in soya production, “and so the extension of the insurance will encourage them to produce more”.

He explained that poultry and livestock farmers consumed 70 per cent and 80 per cent of maize and soya produced in the country and it would therefore be economically expedient to encourage them in their various sectors.

Government recently launched the Ghana Agricultural Insurance Programme (GAIP) which is geared towards encouraging farmers in some parts of the country to increase cereal production to serve as buffer stock.