Vice President John Dramani Mahama launched a 62-million-dollar Northern Rural Growth Programme (NRGP) in Tamale on Friday. He called on implementers of the programme to help farmers to rear livestock and keep guinea fowl in the Upper West, the Upper East and the Northern Region. Vice President Mahama said the production of livestock and small ruminants would serve as “Bank” for the people of the three northern regions and said all plans aimed at improving the living conditions of the people should be encouraged. The NRGP is being financed by African Development Bank (ADB) and the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), The scheme is aimed at developing agriculture commodity value chains to increase production in rural areas of the three Northern regions and contiguous Savanna Districts of the Brong Ahafo region. It is also expected to provide production and marketing infrastructure, improve access to rural financial services and would fully integrate key private sector operators in the value chain. Mr. John Mahama said though agriculture was key to the development of the people of the north, access to food in the area continued to be a problem due to the lack of access to agriculture machinery and other services. He decried the poor nature of road infrastructure in the north, undeveloped markets and climate variability, which he said severely limited the capacities of small farmers to enhance agriculture productivity. The Vice President said that the agriculture sector stood the best chance of ensuring significant improvement in productivity and income levels as well as investments in roads and bridges. Mr. Mahama said the goals of the programme were not different from those of the Savanna Accelerated Development Authority (SADA), contained in the NDC manifesto and that its potential would help accelerate both economic growth and social cohesion in the rural Savanna areas of the country. Vice President Mahama said poverty was the major cause of conflicts in Northern Ghana, saying, “Disputes arising from chieftaincy, land, ethnicity and other forms of conflicts often assume headlines because the poverty factor is always hidden yet very real”, adding that the programme would help in conflict mitigation. He said the whole world witnessed floods that brought about untold hardships to the people of the north in 2007. Mr. John Mahama said the situation also exposed the structural weaknesses of the north and its vulnerability in times of natural disasters and this needed to be addressed. He said the people of the north appreciated contributions from Ghana’s development partners as well as international, national and local organizations that brought relief items to displaced persons. Mr. Alieu Jeng, Resident Representative of the ADB, said the programme, which was demand-driven and private sector oriented would improve businesses. He said the Bank’s portfolio since its operation in Ghana in 1973 to December 2008 had disbursed 1.7 billion dollars, which was diverse in terms of sectoral allocation and lending instrument. Mr. Jeng said these included project loans, grants and budget support in agriculture sector with 235 million dollars, infrastructure, 268 million dollars, multi sector, 148 million dollars, social sector, 120 million dollars, private sector operations, 70 million dollars and multi-national interventions, 149 million dollars. He said the NRDP would help improve linkages between the domestic and export markets for agricultural production in the north and this could help address the problem of poverty. Mr. Mohammed Manssouri, IFAD Ghana Country Programme Manager, said the Fund had financed 15 projects at the cost of 184 million dollars, aimed at reducing rural poverty in the three northern regions. He said the current IFAD portfolio stood at about 80 million dollars and that co-financing and government contribution was about 250 million dollars. Mr. Manssouri expressed the hope that with support from ADB, the NRGP programme poverty would be reduced in the north. Source: GNA