Tamale, August 5, GNA - Mr. Sylvester Adongo, Northern Regional Director of Food and Agriculture, has appealed for more funding for agriculture at the district level to enable the ministry to meet its agriculture production targets.

Mr. Adongo was speaking at a two-day regional stakeholders' workshop on the "Agriculture Sector Plan" (ASP) in Tamale on Monday. The six-year ASP is envisaged to transform agriculture.

The workshop, which brought together District Directors of Agriculture, District Coordinating Directors, farmer-based organisations (FBOs) and NGOs in the region, is to study a draft of the ASP and draw up new strategies for effective implementation of agricultural plans at the district level.

The draft ASP seeks to address adoption of improved technologies, increase agriculture research funding and promote cash crop, livestock and fisheries production.

Other goals are the development of new products and development chains for selected commodities, strengthening of FBOs and out-grower schemes concept, development of rural infrastructure and support for urban and peri-urban agriculture.

Mr. Adongo said despite several attempts to increase agricultural output, the potential in cotton, rice and sheanut production had not been realized.

He appealed to district directors of agriculture and the DCDs to take a critical look at the new strategies and either broaden or narrow them to suit their peculiar district needs to ensure effective implementation. He said the DCDs were the pivots on which the development of the districts depended and therefore called on them to step up their monitoring and supervisory roles to ensure success of the ASP in their areas.

Professor Saa-Ditto, a resource person at the workshop, said global warming would in the near future bring about water shortages and appealed to agriculturalists to brace themselves up to meet the challenges. He said the problem now is not whether there is enough water or a shortage of it but how to conserve it and use it efficiently for agriculture. Professor Saa-Ditto, who is an agricultural economist, urged district assemblies to identify crops that do well in their areas and put more resources into their production.