The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has launched the Rearing for Food and Jobs (RFJ) campaign, another module of his administration’s flagship programme – “Planting for Food and Jobs”.
The campaign, which will run for five years, from 2019 to 2023, according to President Akufo-Addo, “will develop a competitive and more efficient livestock industry, which will increase domestic production, reduce importation of livestock products, contribute to employment creation, and improve livelihoods of livestock value chain actors”.
Launching the campaign in the Upper West Regional capital, Wa, President Akuffo Addo bemoaned the steep decline of Ghana’s livestock sector, which has been largely attributed to the high cost of production, and competition from cheap imports of livestock and its products, forcing most livestock producers to stop producing meat, and to concentrate solely on crop production.
With Ghana importing $400 million worth of meat products annually, and with local meat production accounting for only 19% of the country’s meat requirements, President Akufo-Addo stated that these grim statistics are an indictment on the country, and that is why success has to be made of the Rearing for Food and Jobs campaign.
Towards addressing the challenges confronting the country’s livestock industry, the President stated that the RFJ by design, will cover selected value chains in the livestock sector namely, cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, poultry chicken and guinea fowl production.
President Akufo Addo announced that “the breeding stations that were closed down including Wulugu in the North East Region, Doba in the Upper east Region, Busa in the Upper West Region, and Wenchi in the Bono Region, would be revived.”
Also, the president stated that enhancement of the Pong Tamale Veterinary Training College, the Disease Investigation Farms in Techiman and Savelugu, and the Disease Diagnostic Laboratories in Accra, Tamale and Kumasi, will be undertaken as a matter of urgent priority.
President Akufo-Addo tasked the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to ensure rapid information flow to the citizenry on how they can access the facilities pertaining to the RFJ campaign.
