Mr Kofi Gyamfi, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Gees Fresh Meat Products and packaging company in the Northern regional capital, Tamale, has called on Government and district assemblies to encourage the guinea fowl industry as it is the best industry that can help reduce poverty in the north. According to him, the demand for guinea fowl meat from people living in the north by southerners and others who visit the north is very high. Therefore, if attention were given to the industry, a lot of Ghanaians would indisputably patronize its products. "If this is true, what is Government doing towards boosting the guinea fowl industry?" he quipped. Mr. Gyamfi made this statement in an interview with The Heritage at his factory office in Tamale. According to him, succeeding governments and NGOs had made several attempts to help reduce poverty in the northern part of the country but all such efforts had failed so far. Such efforts had been focused on the areas of shea nut and grains, with little attention being given to the livestock industry, the least, guinea fowl rearing. "I believe, if much attention is given to guinea fowls, even women who are into smalll-scale businesses can be given intensive training in the rearing that will go a long way to help solve their financial needs." Reviewing teething challenges of his company, Mr. Gyamfi said that in the main, some communities his purchasing group visited had hundreds of guinea fowls but refused to sell them out. According to him, "some of these people always complain about hardships in the system and this may be due to lack of awareness of the profit margin in the guinea fowl industry," he said. He explained that the main aim of the factory is to help project the livelihood of people who nurture guinea fowls and other livestock; it is also aimed at persuading some potential farmers to go into the guinea fowl industry. Mr. Gyamfi, therefore, appealed to the government and NGOs in and around the three northern regions to re-plan their micro-financing towards promoting guinea fowl rearing, which counts no loss of funds". He ended by saying that almost 40 percent of the country's food crops come from the north, so something massive needs to be done to boost the sector; especially the guinea fowl industry. The marketing manager of the firm, Janet Ayeyie, in a chat, noted that the firm is not only focused on packaging guinea fowl meat but also aims at going into other fresh prod¬ucts that would lead to help the vulnerable peasant farmer. She added that the company had bought 10 plots of land at Vittim village, a suburb of Tamale, and would soon start nurturing guinea fowls on them. Source: The Heritage