He said evidence from field visits across the country pointed to a bumper harvest this year, which would make the country food secure while creating jobs and improving incomes for farmers among other things.

Dr Bambangi said this at Bole at the weekend after a two-day tour of some maize, rice and soya beans farms under the Planting for Food and Jobs programme at Savelugu/Nanton Municipal, Gushegu and Bole districts of the Northern Region.

The Deputy Minister earlier visited some farms in the Upper East and Upper West regions.

Most of the farmers indicated they increased the number of acres they cultivated because of the Planting for Food and Jobs, which offered them subsidised inputs as well as on a 50 per cent credit.

They also reported that several rounds of spraying using chemicals supplied by the Government and other local remedies helped their farms to recover from the fall army worm infestation. Dr Bambangi said many farmers followed the right agronomic instructions, which helped to recover a large percentage of the farms infested by the worms.

Mr Mumuni Ibrahim, the Acting Bole District Director of Agriculture, advised farmers to spray their farms from 05:30 hours 07:00 hours and from 17:30 hours to 1900 hours as the worms came out around those times to feed on the crops. 

Mr Yakubu Issahaku, a Maize Farmer at Nabogu in the Savelugu/Nanton Municipality, appealed to the Government to offer small credit facilities to farmers to enable them to expand their operations to increase food production.