He said strong proposals for agro-based initiatives including; agri-business should be considered in the general development of every assembly in the region to make the flagship programme beneficial to the people whose mainstay was agriculture.

He said agriculture was the main occupation of the people in the region was agriculture and hoped they would embrace the ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’ programme the necessary push to succeed.

The Paramount Chief made the call while chairing a meeting of Journalists in the region at the instance of the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council (UERCC) where dozens of journalists had the opportunity to interact with the Regional Minister, Mr Rockson Bukari and heads of departments.

The Tongo-Rana made the call with passion, and justified the need for the MDCEs to give off their best in ensuring that the programme in its entirety was successful.

He indicated that agriculture as the mainstay of the people ought to be fully tapped and encouraged as majority of them were subsistence farmers.

The Paramount Chief who is also the elected Member of the Council of State for the region observed that dry-season irrigation farming was a viable component of the “Planting for Food and Jobs” programme and should be considered as an essential area to take advantage of.

The Tong-Rana reminded the MDCEs that there were bigger opportunities for agriculture development in almost all the flagship programmes of government and said apart from the “Planting for Food and Jobs” programme, the “million dollar for each constituency”, the one District one Factory (1D1F) Initiative, among others all had agriculture potentials once investments under such programmes were tailored to self-initiatives..

The Tong-Rana who is also known in private life as Mr Robert Nachinnaab Monsori, conceded that the MDCEs could not champion the initiatives alone and called on staff of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) and allied departments such as staff of the Forestry Commission, Assembly Members, the media, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) faith based organizations and farmer groups to support them to realize the objective.