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.
