Yendi (N/R), Feb. 19, GNA- The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), has provided GHC 7,921 to the Yendi Peace Council (YPC), a social group, to assist unemployed youth in the Yendi Municipality to go into agriculture.

The money would be channelled through the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and beneficiaries would be expected to engage in dry season farming.

Bishop Vincent Sowah Boi-Nai, the Catholic Bishop of Yendi, announced these at a meeting of the YPC to brief members about the assistance, and the award he had received from the American Embassy for promoting peace in Dagbon. The Bishop, who said he had dedicated the award to the YPC and the people of Dagbon, called on the group to work with other organisations to sustain the prevailing peace in Dagbon. Bishop Boi-Nai said the Yendi Students' Union and the Sustainable Peace Initiative, a Bolgatanga-based non-governmental organisation, operating in the Upper East Region, had shown interest in collaborating with the YPC to sustain peace in Yendi and Dagbon as a whole. Mr Ben Nortey Wilson, Yendi Municipal Director of Agriculture, who briefed newsmen on dry season gardening, said so far 30 youth had been trained to cultivate vegetables including tomatoes, lettuce, sweet pepper and okro. Alhaji Issahaku Fuseini, a member of the Peace Council, said the group would educate the public on the need for peaceful election this year.

He appealed to the youth who would be undertaking farming to cooperate with agriculture extension officers and appealed to the government to construct more irrigation dams to facilitate boost dry season gardening.