Today Is National Farmers Day

By Edmund Mingle

Friday, 07 December 2007

TODAY is being observed throughout the country as National Farmers’ Day.
The day, has been set aside to honour farmers and fishermen whose toil and sweat have sustained the economy up to this time.

The first Farmer’s Day was celebrated at Osino in the Eastern Region.
This year’s event is under the theme: "Ghana at 50: Progress and challenges of sustainable agricultural development".

The national event is taking place at the Jubilee Park at Wa, in the Upper West Region, where 72 farmers, fishermen and agricultural extension officers will be honoured.

Similar events are being held in the various regional and district capitals throughout the country.

The observance of the day, which rotates among the regions, will be used to highlight some of the challenges and the needed solutions towards achieving national food security.

Prior to today, the farmers who are to be honoured at the Wa national celebration toured Akosombo to familiarise themselves with operations at the Volta River Authority Hydro-Power generating plant as well as the Volta River Transport Company.

They also visited the Cocoa Processing Company and the Ghana Ports and Habours Authority at Tema where some of them had first-hand information on how cocoa and other products are processed and exported. They were later treated to a cocktail party at the forecourt of the State House.

The overall National Best Farmer for 2007 will receive a three-bedroom house to be built at a place of his or her choice. It will be financed by the Agricultural Development Bank.

FIFTY year-old Mohammed Tetteh Akpah, from Afienya-Mataheko in the Greater Accra Region, was crowned the overall National Best Farmer at last year’s National Farmers’ Day celebration at Nkawie.

Agriculture contributes about 36 per cent to the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP), employs 50.6 per cent of the economically active population, and provides 52 per cent of Ghana’s total foreign earnings and about 10 per cent of total revenue.