Member of Parliament for Yendi constituency, Alhaji Farouk Aliu Mahama has supported 1000 women with farm inputs.
The inputs included knapsack sprayers, cutlasses, weedicide, bon agro, sea state, bon sprayer, and wellington boots, among others worth thousands of Cedis.
The beneficiary women are drawn from Yendi Municipality, Tatale/Sanguli, Nanumba North, Kpandai and Saboba districts.
Alhaji Mahama who presented the items to the women said it was aimed at empowering rural women to increase participation in agriculture and was grateful, for the participation of women in rural agriculture.
Alhaji Farouk who is the Founder of PPR said as he left the cocoa board, he decided to follow the legacy of his late father Alhaji Aliu Mahama, a former Vice President.
He promised to purchase a pick-up and motorbikes for a team to go into the villages to promote agriculture and would soon visit the Arab Emirates to seek support to help the people in the area.
He said women were critical to his heart and he would register them into groups to have PPR farmers, to have about 300 acres of farms for Yendi to become the food basket of the area.
He said they will also provide 400 streets lights for Yendi Township and a number of women would have skill training in hairdressing, dressmaking among others and called on the people of the area to work in unity together for the development of the area.
In an address delivered on his behalf Ya- Na Abukari II, the overlord of Dagbon said, Alhaji Farouk was not a Member of Parliament when he renovated the Yendi Hospital, and mortuary and furnished it with all the necessary refrigerators and equipment among others.
Ya-Na expressed appreciation to the MP for his efforts to develop the area, adding the inputs would help them in their farm and to take care of their children with their farm produce to go to school.
Alhaji Hammed Abubakar Yussuf the Yendi Municipal Chief Executive said the MP was supporting the men in agriculture, but now he was empowering the rural women in agriculture not only in Yendi, but other MMDAS, formerly with the Dagbon (Yendi ) council and urged them to unite for development.
He advised the women not to cultivate large acres of farms but should cultivate acreages they could manage and seek technical advice from the Extension Officers.
Mr. Bashiru Musah Executive Officer of PPR said they were also into health, and education among others and had screened people on hepatitis, with 24 of them confirmed with the disease now under treatment while others were vaccinated.
He said PPR also supported 150 students in Yendi with funds to pay their school fees adding agriculture was the core area of their programs and that was why they extended it into other districts in the Eastern Corridor for women to benefit.