Assessment of agricultural production in the Upper West Region this year indicates an overall average of 16 per cent reduction in yield of major crops as compared to last year. Details of the reduced production for the major crops grown in the region indicate that only cowpea yields showed a 13.5 per cent increased production over last year. Figures received from the Upper West Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture indicates that maize production for 2006 was 48,128 tonnes as compared to 40,104.16 tonnes for 2007 recording a deficit of 20.0075 tonnes. Rice recorded 5,124 tonnes for 2006 but registered only 4,744.053 tonnes in 2007, experiencing a shortfall of 8.00892 tonnes. Millet production for 2006 stood at 47,602 tonnes while yields for 2007 recorded a 43,760.3 tonnes, suffering a loss of 8.77896 tonnes. The figures showed that sorghum yielded 90,380 tonnes for 2006 but suffered a decrease of 68,452.77 for 2007 production period thereby registering a deficit of 32.0326 tonnes. Yam production stood at 30,7065 tonnes, reduced to 25,5511.6 tonnes within the same periods and experienced a loss of 20.1765 tonnes. Groundnut suffered a deficit of 36.8074 tonnes, as it recorded 166,540 tonnes for 2006 as compared to 121,733.2 tonnes in 2007. Soyabean also registered a deficit of 15.535 tonnes as it yielded 12,336 tonnes in 2006 and drop off to 10677.28 tonnes for 2007. Mr. Emmanuel D. Eledi, Upper West Regional Director of Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) said people in the region are predominantly farmers with about 86 percent of the population engaged in farming. He said the region produced a lot of grains, legumes, roots and tuber crops alongside food crops and industrial crops such as cotton, cashew, sheanuts and mangoes. Mr. Eledi said livestock production has improved steadily due to various interventions introduced by MOFA to support the livestock sector while in the fisheries sector farmers had been introduced to fish farming recently in addition to the only fish capture technology practiced in the area. With these new technologies, the region has been able to supplement the protein requirement of its people through the more than 300 fishing communities in the area. Mr. Eledi mentioned post-harvest losses of crops, inadequate water resources to enhance an all year round agricultural production, resulting in food insecurity, poor road network, high cost of agricultural inputs that affects production as some of the challenges militating against agricultural performance. He said the erratic rainfall pattern continued to be unpredictable and no solution had been found to that challenge and mentioned last year prolonged drought and floods as worrying. Mr. Eledi called for the construction of more irrigation projects in valleys in the region to give advantage to farmers to produce all year round. He said a new programme to be known, as the Northern Rural Growth Programme would be implemented in the Upper West, Upper East and Northern Regions by the government in collaboration with International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and African Development Fund to address challenges confronting the agricultural sector. He said government had also instituted the Northern Development Fund (NDF) that would implement various development strategies to being sustainable solution to the poverty problem of the North. Source: GNA