The Easter agriculture sales bazaar opened in Accra on Monday to give the opportunity to the public to purchase agricultural produce at affordable prices for the Easter celebrations.

The four-day sales bazaar, organised by the Greater Accra Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and Accra/Tema Livestock and poultry Farmers Association, would run between 0800 and 1900 hours daily.

Similar sales bazaars were going on simultaneously in the other nine regions.

Major Courage Quashigah (rtd), Minister of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), in a speech read for him, said the bazaar was in line with the Ministry's task of ensuring that consumers got good quality and nutritious products at the right places at affordable prices.

He said although the country was achieving self-sufficiency in maize, roots and tubers, the same could not be said about poultry and fish production.

"Although livestock production seems to be secondary to crop farming, its socio-economic importance in the reduction of rural poverty and as a stabilising factor of family income is well acknowledged."

Major Quashigah said that the number of Civil Servants, who were engaged in backyard poultry and livestock production to supplement their salaries, attest to this.

However, he said, the contribution of the Livestock Sub-Sector in meeting the needs of the population had remained low with internal production contributing only about 30 per cent of national protein requirements in terms of meat, milk and eggs.

The Minister announced that MOFA had put in place measures to revamp the livestock and poultry industry by providing the Animal Research Institute with a modern feed analyser to ensure the production of quality feed.

The Ministry had also put in place a five-year Ghana Livestock Development Project, which was just about to take off, he said.

Mr Solomon Ofei Darko, Chief Executive of Accra Metropolitan Assembly, said the bazaar was the result of popular request from the public to be organising such events monthly and congratulated the organisers for their focus.

He announced that the AMA and MOFA would soon set up a committee to advise people on the right type of backyard gardening they could engage in to ensure food security.