Jirapa, UWR, Dec. 9, GNA - A total of 1,303 farmers in the Upper West Region has cultivated 2,754.9 acres of maize and rice this year under the Expanded Crop Production Programme (ECPP).

The Programme covered all the nine districts which have comparative advantage in maize and rice production to help boost food production and to enhance food security in the region.

Mr. Emmanuel D. Eledi, Regional Director of Agriculture, who announced this at this year's Farmer Day celebration at Jirapa, said the rational for the programme was to increase food stocks thereby creating buffer stocks in times of hunger and famine.

The Ministry of Food and Agriculture has worked out a number of strategies to help unearth the untapped agricultural potentials of the region to enhance higher productivity and improved livelihoods of farmers in the communities.

Mr. Eledi said livestock production had also improved under the Livestock Development Project which had provided livestock owners with improved stocks of ruminants such as sheep, goats, pigs and cattle to upgrade and enlarge their local breed for increased incomes. He said the project has a 'Credit in Kind' component in which small ruminants are provided on credit to farmers and it is recovered in the form of an offspring of the credited stock to other beneficiaries.

He announced that the region recorded a deficit of 10,383 metric tonnes of fish last year out of the 12,500 metric tonnes it required within the same period. Annual fish production stood at 2,117 metric tonnes. Farmers had therefore been introduced to fish farming in addition to fish capture technology to supplement the protein requirement of the people. Mr. Eledi warned farmers whose farms were on low land areas to move to high lands before the next rainy season to avoid flood disasters which they experienced in the two previous seasons. 9 Dec.09