Agriculture, rural development, environmental protection and the management of natural resources have been identified as some of the major issues, which when tackled properly, would help boost development in the ECOWAS sub-region as well as reduce poverty. Mr Ousseini Salifou, ECOWAS Commissioner said during a courtesy call on the Minister of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment, Mr. Kwadwo Adjei-Darko on Friday, that the ECOWAS Commission was addressing these issues through the development of a number of projects to help member countries. The projects include the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) and ECOWAS Common Agricultural Policy (ECOWAP), which call for the full participation of member states to ensure their success. Mr Salifou said each member state would be required to develop its own plans on fisheries, water body management and livestock and also implement them. He said in each member state a technical team made up of representatives from relevant Ministries and consultants from international bodies such as the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) had been set up to see to the drawing up of the policies. "Policies, which would be adopted by each member country, would be presented to the various Heads of State when they meet in December this year," he said. Mr Salifou advised the Ministry to fully participate in the projects so that the programmes by the Commission would be successful at the national and local levels. He noted that the success of the programmes would be able to feed the 250 million people who live in the sub-region. Mr Adjei-Darko said the nation and the Ministry were committed to the ideals of the Commission on rural development and would do all that it could for the success of the programmes. He said that if urban poverty could be reduced, then the agriculture sector should be tackled with all the needed attention it deserved to minimise rural- urban migration and provide employment for the rural folks. "Agriculture employs the greater percentage of people in our villages and something should definitely be done to improve it for the sustenance of our rural dwellers," the Minister said. Mr Adjei-Darko said in the quest to develop the nation we have neglected our natural resources such as the water bodies and this was having a negative effect on the environment. He advised ECOWAS member states to come up with strategies, which would adopt the use of underground water resource for the management of the agriculture sector. Source: GNA