Tamale, July 10, GNA - The Adventist Development Relief Agency (ADRA) has spent 18 billion cedis to support farmers in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions under its Food Security Project, Mr S. Asante Mensah, Country Director of ADRA said in Tamale. He said the project had provided improved soybean and maize seeds, fertilizers, as well as tractor and bullock plough services to farmers in the three regions.

Similarly, 35 pairs of bullocks and carts had been purchased for the farmers while 450 large silos had been constructed for them to help reduce post harvest losses.

Mr Mensah was speaking to the GNA in an interview on the activities of the ADRA in Northern Ghana, this year.

He said 10,000 grafted mangos had been distributed to 500 farmers for replanting while the farmers had been provided with 6,000 bags of wheat in the lean season as a package from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The ADRA Director said 33 wells and five boreholes had been constructed to provide potable water in some communities to help reduce the incidence of guinea worm and other water-borne diseases.

He said ADRA was encouraging communities in the three Northern Regions to establish woodlots for their fuel needs while the Agency had embarked on bushfire education campaign to help protect the environment. Mr Mensah said the Forestry Commission in collaboration with ADRA was carrying out feasibility studies on the Gum Arabic Tree, in the Upper East Region, which produces gum that could be used for confectionery, adding that Cocoa Processing Company had been using it for the production of chocolate.