Mr. Kojo Acquah (right) presenting some of the cockerels (in the box) to some of the farmers
The Ministry of Agriculture is distributing 5,000 cockerels to 500 poultry farmers in the Western Region as part of the Rearing for Food and Jobs policy of the government.
The five-year project is part of the determination by Akufo-Addo’s NPP administration to reduce the importation of chicken to a manageable level.
At a brief ceremony to hand over the cockerels to the farmers, the Effia-Kwesimintsim Municipal Chief Executive, Kojo Acquah, said available statistics indicated that the country imported about 250,000 metric tonnes of chicken annually which cost about $375,000 million.
He explained that the initiative would also help to increase the number of poultry farmers and also increase the percentage of poultry consumed locally to about 80 per cent.
He used the opportunity to advise Ghanaians to go out in their numbers to vote on December 7 and conduct themselves very well and not to engage in any act of violence.
“Going to vote does not mean going to fight, but I will plead with Ghanaians to vote massively for the NPP government to continue its good works,” he said.
Samuel Apiiga, Western Regional Director of Agriculture, explained that the purpose for the national cockerel project was to provide more birds to Ghanaian poultry farmers for rearing.
He indicated that the cockerels being distributed were more nutritious than the imported poultry products; saying “we are providing 5,000 cockerels to 500 farmers in the Western Region and we will continue.”
He said, “The current government has really helped the Agriculture sector because it has been a long time since I saw some of these initiatives when I started working as an agriculture personnel. When NPP government came into power, you could see that every district officer of agriculture had brand new pick- up vehicles and brand new motorbikes to extension officers as well as maintenance allowances.”
He said “these cockerels we are distributing to the farmers, I will advise them to take very good care of them in terms of their feeding and the sanitation condition of the chicken coop.”
Francis Godfrey Ansah, this year’s Municipal Best Farmer, thanked the government for the various initiatives being undertaken which were geared towards improving the lots of farmers in the country.
“This government has made farming so attractive and encouraging to the extent that even the youth are now going into agriculture,” he said.
“We used to have lots of challenges as farmers but when the NPP government came to power those challenges were no more,” he asserted.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Effia