Pong Tamale, July 26, GNA - Major Courage Quashigah, Minister of Food and Agriculture, has called for a survey on pigs to ascertain the viability of a pork processing plant in the Northern Region. He said time had come for the Ministry to discourage farmers from transporting live-animals for sale in the South, adding, "we must think of processing animal products to add value for export". Major Quashigah who was on the final leg of a two-day visit to the region was speaking at the Pong Tamale Animal Production Health College during the inspection of the Livestock Breeding Station and the Central Laboratory, on Friday.

More than 500 farmers were trained in animal production and husbandry at the Station, which has 150 pigs and 700 sheep. Mr. Robert Dodoo, Farm Manager, said the indiscriminate disposal of polythene bags posed a serious threat to animals in communities, adding that, several sheep, goats and cows had died after eating polythene with grass.

Farmers had also complained that polythene on their farms had reduced soil fertility and sometime disrupted the germination of seeds. Mr. Dodoo urged MOFA to help address the situation before it became a major problem. He appealed to the Ministry to undertake long-term projects to improve animal production, saying "short-term projects are not beneficial to farmers because animals, unlike crops take longer time to develop".

Major Quashigah also inspected rice fields under the Lowland Rice Development Project (LRDP) at Tongin, in the Tolon/ Kumbungu District and interacted with the farmers to know of their problems for solution. Mr. Emmanuel Tetteh-Bio, Manager LRDP said the project supported 2,474 farmers with 1.562 billion cedis to cultivate 1,088 hectares of rice last year. He said the loan recovery rate was only 56 per cent, which had caused a sharp reduction in the number of farmers qualified for assistance this year.

The project was assisting 1,200 farmers with 590 million cedis to cultivate 446 hectares of the crop this year. Mr. Tetteh-Bio said this year's May-June rains flooded the fields, which made ploughing difficult and accounted for the reduction in acreage under cultivation. The Minister inspected the Tamale Implement Factory where agricultural tools such as donkey and bullock carts, ploughing blades and farm trucks for animal traction were manufactured.