The 2nd maiden edition of the Livestock, Poultry, and Fisheries Tradeshow (LiPF) with the theme “Step Up” has been launched at Tuleku, Accra.
This year’s maiden edition of the tradeshow is to help people to identify the opportunities present in the livestock, poultry and fisheries sector and learn from experts on how to harness these opportunities for the creation of jobs, reduce the unemployment rate and promote the growth of Ghanaian economy.
In a welcoming address, the Executive Director of Agrihouse Foundation, Alberta Nana Akyaa Akosa said that the progrmme was established to bridge the gap that exists between livestock and the crop sector in Ghana’s agriculture industry. She acknowledged that collaborating with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, developing partners, and private sponsors the focus would be achieved.
Giving the activities of the event, Mss. Akyaa Akosa outlined that the first day would offer training sessions on poultry management, fisheries, piggery, and aquaculture as well as livestock and business management. On the same day, the session would include guidelines for setting up a cattle farm, rabbit, grasscutter, and panel discussion on accelerating investments into the livestock sub-sector.
Following the next day, the event would feature livestock show and parade activity. This would display all the livestock species in Ghana. The last day would be climaxed with an exciting event called the Chef LiPF Competition. The Chef LiPF competition is a cooking competition that would collaborate by the nation’s food spices producers.
In a keynote address on behalf of the Hon. Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Adu Kumah, the Director of Veterinary Service assured that the government is totally in support to revitalize the livestock sector. He made mention that to overcome the negative trend of food security and to reach the hunger-reduction target, the government has launched an innovative policy to reinvigorate the livestock sector to drastically reduce meat importation and create sustainable jobs for the youth dubbed “rearing for food and jobs”.
He admitted that keeping livestock is an important and pivotal component and link in the Ghanaian farming and livelihood systems. “Livestock is a living bank for many farmers and it has a critical role in the agricultural intensification process through the provision of draught power and manure for fertilizer and fuel”, he added.
To him, livestock is closely linked to the social and cultural lives of millions of resource-poor farmers for whom animal ownership ensures varying degrees of sustainable farming and economic stability, yet livestock keeping has not kept pace with the growth of the human population.
“The livestock, poultry and fisheries tradeshow is a step in the right direction for the development of the animal production and the Ministry would continue to partner with Agrihouse Foundation for LiPF to become a sustainable annual event, therefore, I officially launched the 2020 livestock, poultry, and fisheries tradeshow”, he launched it.
The Chief of Party, USDA for Ghana Poultry Project, Carianne De Boer added that the livestock sector presents valuable opportunities that must be harnessed for economic development and that Ghana Poultry Project has been involved in creating the platform to highlight these opportunities through agricultural trade shows.
She explained that the tradeshow is designed to deliver quality training and business linkages for participants and there is no better time than now to build Ghana’s own industry capacity and opportunity for men, women, and the youth through livestock development.
She invited everyone to step up and experience unlimited opportunities at this year’s tradeshow.
Alhaji Moro AkakAde, the national Chairman of Livestock Breeders and Traders Associate decried that the livestock sector is not receiving attention as compare to crop farming and farmers.
“Crop farming and farmers have received and continued to receive more attention from the government in terms of extension officers and other financial and technical assistance while reserving livestock farming especially cattle farming to few non-literate stakeholders in the sector to handle with very low technical assistance”, he criticized.
To develop livestock production in a more realistic manner, the chairman indicated that digging of dams in the cattle farming communities, developing grazing lands, identifying and developing transhumance route, and local stakeholders in the livestock industry should be trained or sent to other sister African countries for case study to learn good practices and management in cattle farming are the means that the sector could be developed in Ghana.
He called on the individuals, professional bodies to invest in the sector.
The actual event is slated for 25th – 27th September 2020 at Efua Sutherland Children’s Park, Accra.
