Their inclusion which would start from next year meant that all agricultural areas would be covered under the Programme, as the Government sought to transform the country through development in agriculture.

He said livestock production formed a major component of the agricultural economy and played critical role in the agricultural intensification process and as such could not be excluded from a Programme intended to modernise the sector to improve productivity and achieve food security and profitability.

Dr Akoto gave the hint at the opening of the 20th biennial conference of the Ghana Society of Animal Production (GSAP) at the University of Cape Coast (UCC) on Wednesday.

The theme for the three-day conference being attended by scientist from the various research institutions in Ghana and Nigeria is: "Positioning the animal industry to achieve food security: the role of stakeholders”

The Minister, in a speech delivered on his behalf by his Deputy, Mr George Oduro, explained that the exclusion of the livestock and poultry industry from the first year of the implementation of the programme was not deliberate but for Government to embark on a thorough assessment before rolling them on.

“The planting for food and jobs is estimated to increase local production of maize and soybean by 20 and 30 per cent respectively. This will in turn make these ingredients available at reasonable prices for livestock farmers and consequently reduce their cost of production,” the Minister explained.

He outlined Government’s thought-out strategies for the development of the poultry and livestock industry and assured stakeholders of Government’s continued support.

Dr Akoto said the Ministry would work with all relevant stakeholders to ensure that the major policy issues contained in the Livestock Policy Document were addressed.

The Document among things seeks to address policy issues on livestock input supply, investment and financing of the livestock sector, capacity building, marketing, demand, value addition and import substitution as well as governance, regulatory and institutional arrangements.

He told members of the society to play an active and complimentary role in support of the government's efforts at improving domestic supply of animal protein to the people.

The Central Regional Minister, Mr Kwamena Duncan appealed to researchers of GSAP to help address problems with the livestock sector, and make their findings, impact on national livestock production.

He expressed the hope that participants would at the end of the conference, come out with strategies that would improve animal production and curb the importation of animals, which sometimes turned out to be unwholesome.

Professor Samuel Obeng  Apori, President of GSAP, appealed to MoFA to re-brand its “Planting for food and jobs” slogan to “Planting crops and raising livestock for food and jobs” to give equal attention to food crops and animal food production in the development of the country’s agriculture.

He said large scale effective and efficient poultry and livestock production in Ghana would create millions of jobs, reduce post -harvest losses, stabilise food crop prices and reduce wastage of agriculture and agro-industrial by-products.

Prof Apori called on the Government to provide resources to build up statistics on poultry and livestock, and information on available conventional and non-conventional feed resources as a first step towards building up viable and sustainable animal industry in Ghana.