Accra, March 31, GNA - The government has contracted a 19 million-dollar loan from the Agricultural Development Bank to improve livestock production and improve the livelihood of farmers. The project involves the construction of a farmers' hostel at Pong Tamale, 33 dugouts and boreholes in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions.

Mr Barfour Asare-Mensah, Director, Animal Production Directorate of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, told the Ghana News Agency in an interview in Accra that the project would train farmers in animal production, disease control, capacity building, sanitation and housing of livestock.

He said 45,000 young sheep and goats were supplied to about 4,500 farmers and each farmer had nine females and one male of which after two years they are expected to refund. Mr Mensah said it is an on-going process and after one year some were ready to repay what was loaned to them. He said the farmers were also supported with shrub seeds to be planted at their backyard so that there would be feed all year round for their animals.

Mr Mensah said the same system had been extended to pigs and 1,000 of them had been distributed in a first phase plan. "From our own local breeding stations we are producing genetically improved breeds to support other beneficiaries in the second phase this year," he said.