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Mr. Mahmud Khalid, Upper West Regional Minister, has urged farmers in the region to go into the cultivation of fruit trees to feed the Wa Fruits Factory. "We should not allow the factory to experience shortages at any moment, we need to cultivate sufficient fruits to sustain its production and also benefit from its operation", he advised. Mr. Khalid was speaking at this year's Upper West Regional Farmers Day celebration at Jirapa, which was on the theme: "Accelerated agricultural mechanisation for food security and economic transformation". He said the region had comparative advantage in the production of some non-traditional export crops, such as mango, cashew and soyabean and urged farmers to produce them on large scale to improve on incomes and livelihoods. Mr. Khalid called on the youth in the country to take advantage of the several prudent interventions made by government in the agricultural sector to increase crop and livestock production. He announced that government had provided 100 tractors to the region to establish Agricultural Mechanisation Centres in the districts and would increase the supply next year to make tractor services more accessible to farmers. The Regional Minister gave the assurance that with the introduction of the "Block Farming Programme " last year, there were expectations of high yields in maize and rice production this year. Mr. Khalid appealed to people in the region to stop bush burning to allow the environment to rejuvinate to enhance food production. Twenty-three hardworking farmers were awarded with Mr. Sumaila Landie from Kandia in the Sissala West District emerging as the Regional Best Farmer. He took away a spraying machine, corn mill, sewing machine, radio cassette recorder, full piece of wax print, pair of Wellington boots, "T" shirt and a certificate as his prize.