A shea butter processing factory, to be constructed under the government’s ‘One District, One Factory’ programme at Bogrigo, in the Bongo District of the Upper East Region will engage about 200 people in the District when completed.

Mr Peter Ayinbisa Ayamga, the District Chief Executive (DCE) for the area has said the Business Advisory Centre (BAC) and the Rural Enterprise Programme (REP) were finalizing documentations for construction work to commence by the end of November this year, and would reduce unemployment among the people in the District.

The DCE said a total of 50 people would operate the factory, apart from the 200 people that would be engaged, adding that the Assembly had so far interviewed about 194 applicants in readiness for engagement in the factory.

Mr Ayamga said this when he met the press at Bongo to showcase government’s programmes and policies, implemented in the District over the years, and to afford Journalists the opportunity to interact with officials of the Assembly.

The DCE said apart from the factory which was yet to commence, a Warehouse which has a capacity to store about 1000 metric tons of grain, located at Bogrigo which he said would be the industrial hub of the District, was about 80 per cent complete.

He said the Warehouse which is meant for commercial farmers, has offices, grain testing laboratory and washrooms, and stressed that “this is not a non-existing project. It will not be long, we will commission it, put it to use and our farmers will begin to reap some benefits.”

On the One Village – One Dam project in the District, Mr Ayamga, who is also the Parliamentary Aspirant for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), indicated that 10 dams were earmarked for the first batch, and seven were at various levels of completion at Feo, Kabre, Ayopia, Kodorogo, Kuyelingo, Sambologo and Goo, “Work will continue this dry season,” he said.

Giving details of subsidized fertilizers and improved seeds under the ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’ programme, he said in 2017, a total of 4,532 farmers benefitted from the subsidized fertilizers and improved seeds, out of the number, 3,638 were males and 894 were females.

In 2018, he said a total of 4,187 farmers benefitted, out of which 3,164 were males and 1,023 were females, while this year, 4,836 benefitted with 3,275 being males and 1,561 females.

The DCE disclosed that maize production had increased consistently over the past three years, in 2016, 1,094 metric tons of maize was produced, 3, 189 metric tons was produced in 2017, and in 2018, it increased to 8,410 metric tonnes.

Millet production increased from 3,612 tonnes in 2016 to 3,999 tonnes in 2017 and 4, 358.91 tonnes in 2018, while rice production saw a decrease from 4,821 tonnes in 2016 to 4,250 in 2017, but rose to 12,390 tonnes in 2018, giving a total of 21, 461 metric tonnes of rice produced in the District over the three-year period.

Other crops such as sorghum in 2016 saw a yield of 3,675 tonnes which shot up to 4,236.40 and 6,778.80 metric tonnes in 2017 and 2018 respectively, groundnuts production was 2,802 tonnes in 2016, 5,474 in 2017 and 8,245 metric tonnes in 2018.

Mr Ayamga said the situation with cowpea and soya beans were not different; cowpea production increased from 987 tonnes in 2016 to 1,853 tonnes in 2017, but reduced to 1,687.80 tonnes in 2018, while soya beans in 2016 was 135 tonnes production, but declined in 2017 with 126.40 but increased to 172.70 metric tonnes in 2018.