President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is expected to launch another social intervention programme named “Rearing for Food and Jobs (RFJ)” in the Upper West Region to boost animal production and create additional job opportunities.

The programme, which would be launched on June 25, 2019, in the Upper West Regional Capital Wa, will begin in the Wa East, Nandom and Sissala West districts as well as Wa and Jirapa Municipalities.

The above districts, municipalities and their adjoining communities would be the beneficiaries for the first phase of the project expected to take off nationwide.

The initiative would assist about 510 livestock farmers in the beneficiary communities in cockerels, guinea-fowl and sheep rearing.

The Upper West Regional Minister, Dr Hafiz Bin-Salih, said this in Wa when he addressed members of the Regional Coordinating Council that included heads of departments and Municipal and District Chiefs Executives.

He said 110 dams and dugouts comprising 10 dams for each district have been awarded to contractors by the Ministry of Special Development Initiative with some of the contractors working but others were yet to commence work.

“I would personally show keen interest in getting the remaining contractors to start work as soon as practicable,” he said.

He added that three warehouses situated at Bussie in the Daffiama-Bussie-Issa District, Bulenga and Funsi both in Wa East District under the One District One Warehouse project were at various stages of completion.

The planting for food and jobs initiative assisted about 117,220 farmers in the 2018 farming season and an estimated 200,000 farmers in the 2019 season.

Planting for Export and Rural Development (PERD), a component of the Planting for Food and Jobs programme, was also launched this year.

The programme aims to assist farmers in the northern belt in tree crop planting by providing them with cashew and mango seedlings to promote non-traditional export in Ghana.