Wednesday, January 3, 2018

33RD EDITION OF FARMERS’ DAY CELEBRATION HELD IN TANO SOUTH DISTRICT



The Tano South District’s version of the National Farmers’ Day celebration has been held at New Brosankro.
The celebration which attracted farmers, workers and people from all parts of the district saw our gallant farmers been awarded with Prizes and certificates for their selfless and dedicated work to the district and the Nation as a whole.




                      Pictures above show items to be awarded to the farmers and dignitaries at the function
In a speech to mark the occasion, the Tano South District Director of Agriculture Mr. Kyei-Baffour Owusu –Achiaw welcomed all to the programme and congratulated farmers for their immense contributions towards the development of the district and country as a whole.  He said, as Ghana is celebrating the 33rd farmer’s day, there is the need for the authority or government to celebrate the day to award farmers with goodies since they play critical role to make the Nation acquire foodstuffs. He stressed that agriculture remains the mainstay of Ghana’s economy and hinted that government is working assiduously to ensure the country becomes self-sufficient in food production and export the surplus for the foreign exchange.  Mr. Baffour said, the 33rd farmers’ day celebration of which the theme was’’ Farming for food and jobs’’ shows government’s commitment of modernizing agricultural sector to make it looks attractive for more people to invest their resources.
                     
                                       The District Director of Agric delivering his speech at the function
 He stressed that since farmers do not use modern methods of farming, it makes them achieve low yield and hinted that government is putting measures in place to support farmers in order to make farmers obtain high outputs and used the occasion to catalogue the programmes introduced under auspices of Ministry of Food and Agriculture by government. He encouraged the upcoming and enterprising youth to consider farming as a business but not a as a pensioners’ job and also advised all those who participated in PFG programme to settle their remaining balance to ensure the continuity of the programme  and called on stakeholders to partner with government to modernize agriculture.
In a short but impressive address,  the Tano South District Fire command, DO II Abraham Tarm-Sackye said the prudent measures the Tano South District branch of  Ghana National Fire Service  put in place have helped to reduce the fire outbreak in the district and called on authorities to support the fire volunteers for them to assist the fire officers to combat fire outbreak and also to educate the rural folks on the causes of fire outbreak.
                         
                         Mr. Abraham Tarm-Sackye  educating the participants on the causes of fire
In another development, the Member of Parliament for Tano South Constituency, Hon Benjamin Yeboah  Sekyere expressed the felicities of His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo – Addo, the President of the Republic of Ghana to all gallant farmers. He said since agriculture contributes immensely to Ghana’s domestic products the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in collaboration with the Ministry of Trade and Industry is putting measures in place to roll out programmes to be added to the existing ones to support farmers to produce enough foodstuffs to feed the country. He informed farmers to comply all education which will be given to them by the extension officers since the extension officers are the technocrats and encouraged them to form groups to
                      
                                    Hon. Benjamin Yeboah Sekyere (MP) addressing the gathering
enable them channel their grievances to government and said the formation of the groups will help government to identify the needs of the farmers in the district. He said government has introduced planting for food and jobs programme with the notion to reduce rural – urban migration and urged the teaming youth to embrace the programme to make government achieve the intent to which he introduced the programme.

On behalf of  Hix Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo – Addo, the President of the Republic of Ghana and the Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, the DCE for Tano South, Hon. Collins Offinam Takyi welcomed all gathered farmers and other participants and said the National farmers’ day is a  day set aside nationwide to recognized the vital role played by gallant framers in the production of all forms of foodstuffs.
                        
                           Hon. Collins Offinam Takyi (DCE) addressing the gathering
  He said, the 33rd Farmers’ day celebration of which the theme was ‘’ Farming for Food and Jobs’’ could not have been chosen at a better time than now considering the increase rate of unemployment among the youth and inadequacy of some foodstuffs for growing population of our country despite the abundance   of arable lands and other natural resources that promote agriculture. He said since His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo – Addo assumed office, he and his government have formulated and rolled out critical national policies in the agriculture sector which intended to provide opportunity for farmers to increase their production and also attract the youth to engage in agriculture and hinted that, government’s flagship policy ‘’ planting for food and jobs ‘’ has also received international commendation and support by the Canadian government where the Canadian government will modernize Agriculture in Ghana by providing budgetary support for the implementation of the government of Ghana’s food and Agricultural implementation development policy.  
Hon. Takyi said the objective of planting for food and jobs was to create more jobs and increase production and said the areas in which the programme covers are the provision of extension services, supply of fertilizers and improved seed, marketing and monitoring and stressed that, for farmers to be able to purchase more farm inputs, government has subsidized farming inputs by fifty (50 %) whilst the remaining fifty (50 %) will be paid by the farmers after the sales of their products.  He said the Assembly will undertake agricultural project to support many farmers in the district and hinted that the Assembly has submitted a project proposal to the Ministry of Trade and Industry through the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development for approval and called on farmers to take advantage of the programme as soon as it commences in the district.
Hon Takyi said one of the major problems hampering the agriculture sector in Ghana is the post-harvest losses and to find solution to the challenges, government has started the processes to construct one warehouse for each district to store and preserve farm produce. He said government as part of its strategic plans to improve cocoa production in the country has re-instituted the mass cocoa spraying programme to ensure all cocoa farms within the boundaries of Ghana are sprayed. In response to the fall army worm invasion in the district, the honourable Takyi said, the Tano South District branch of MOFA put measures in place to curb the fall army worm infestation and informed all farmers to report cases of fall army worm to the department of Agric for redress.
Hon. Takyi said bushfire is also another problem that confront farmers in the district during dry season and explained that, over the years bushfires have affected many farmers in the district and urged fire service to strengthen fire volunteer groups in the district for them to monitor and report fire cases and other activities which could cause fire to the security agencies.
He said the strategic plans put in place by the District Security Committee and cooperation from Nananom and other stakeholders have made peace continues to exist in the district and called on the authorities at chieftaincy areas of the district to adopt peaceful ways to resolve the differences. He stressed that after the council of Ahafo Chiefs petitioned the President, they met the commission of inquiry on November 2017 to justify the substantial need for the creation of the new Region out of the existing Brong Ahafo Region and urged all and sundry to tune out massively during the referendum to vote to accept the creation of the Region.  


                                                                           Award winners receiving their awards from the dignitaries
In conclusion Hon. Takyi congratulated all the award winning farmers and urged those farmers in the district who have been working very hard all the years but have not yet been selected for award not to give up.