Coast, Oct. 18, GNA - The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) Representative in Ghana, Mr Anatolio Ndong Mba, on Friday urged livestock farmers to increase meat and poultry production in the country.

This would help reduce the huge amount of foreign exchange the country spends on their importation, he said, adding that, the country spend about 100 million dollars annually to import meat products. Mr Mba made the call at a forum to mark the first anniversary of the Central Region Livestock Farmers Association (CERLFA) at Cape Coast under the theme: "To enhance meat production and supply of raw materials for the industry".

He pledged the support of FAO for the Association and said two Tele-food projects for sheep production, piggery and grass cutter rearing, had been approved for livestock farmers in the Assin Kushea area and the Cape Coast School for the Deaf.

In an address read for him, the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Major Courage Quashigah, expressed concern about the heavy amount being spent on the importation of meat and poultry products. He said it was to reverse the situation that the government was evolving a policy to promote livestock production, processing and marketing on a sustainable basis.

The policy, he said, involved the implementation of development programmes that would eliminate constraints on livestock production such as diseases, inadequate and poor quality feed and poor genetic potential of livestock breeds.