A 42 year old farmer, Saaka Sadik popularly known as ” Abrantie ” in the East Gonja Municipality in the Savannah Region has on Friday, 2nd December, 2022 crowned the overall best farmer for the year 2022.
This years celebration marked the 38th Farmer’s Day and was held at Naamu in the East Gonja municipality under the theme; “ACCERELATING AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT THROUGH VALUE ADDITION”.
The awards by the East Gonja Municipal department of Agriculture is in recognition of the hardwork exhibited by the gallant farmers in the area and for their immense contributions to the development of the agricultural sector of Ghana.
17 farmers including 15 men and 2 women were awarded with Saaka Sadik (Abrantie) being crowned as the overall best farmer for 2022.
He received a motorbike, Cutlasses, Knapsack Sprayer and a Certificate as his reward and the 1st runner, Pastor Edward Lijul Dilinyaa receiving a Tv Set, a Pair of Wellington Boots, Cutlasses, Knapsack Sprayer and a Certificate.
The East Gonja Municipal Chief Executive, Hon. Richard Broni in an address before the awards said the 38th farmers day celebrations is in recognition of the toils and achievement made by the gallant farmers through whose hard work and tenacity purpose had contributed to ensuring food security in the Municipality and Ghana as a whole.
He added that, the concept of value addition in Agriculture especially in the areas of fisheries and aquaculture presents a very good opportunity for additional revenue generation, job creation, foreign exchange earnings and effective post-harvest management.
He said, in 2021 total fish production stood at 628,617.53 metric tons estimate at GH 1.04% of GDP and 20.99% of Agriculture GDP which he is very sure value addition was included and would have been more than the above.
He noted that, the contribution of the Agricultural sector remains significant and the employment opportunities that exist in the sector cannot be overemphasized adding that, H.E. President Nana Akufo-Addo has put in place some programmes and interventions to revamp the Agricultural sector which included;
- Savannah Agriculture Value Chain Development (SADP) which was meant to serve as part of post COVID-19 reconstruction efforts aimed at addressing agriculture in Ghana and also seeks to build on the successes under productivity improvement programmes (SIP) that has so far expanded.
- PEST Management Plan (PMP)
3 Food System Resilience Programmes (FSRP2) phase2
- European Union Ghana Agriculture Programme (EU-GAP) in Savannah Ecological Zone.
- Savannah Investment Programme (SIP)
- Ghana Agriculture Sector Investment Programme (GASIP) etc.
He revealed the municipality had also carried out some activities through the department of agriculture which included;
- Empowerment of women in agri-business
- Promotion of market linkages and network between farm inputs dealers, aggregators, transporters and processors.
- Provision of vertinary services to farmers in the area of clinical treatment of animals disease like menge.
- Provide nutrition education, food fortification demonstration. eg Soya garimix orange, sweet potato, gari, soya garimix, soya tubani, soya milk, soya kebab.
- The Establishment of a 10 Hector cashew plantation at Kuwani and Lamsa.
The East Gonja Municipal Director of Agriculture madam Naomi Zeto on her said, an efficient Agriculture productivity will result in abundant food, improve health and increase both domestic and foreign exchange earnings.
She also said, Once there is an improvement in income, people will be committed to their tax obligations and thus enhance the nation’s internally generated funds and also improve on foreign exchange from the Agriculture exports enabling the nation to be self-sufficient to expand her infrastructure and social services like Singapore, Canada, Netherlands and other developed Countries.
“Government flagship programs; which include PLATING FOR FOOD AND JOBS, PLANTING FOR EXPORT AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT and REARING FOR FOOD AND JOBS, ONE DISTRICT ONE WARE HOUSE, ONE DISTRICT ONE FACTOR seek to address the above challenges. Everybody in Ghana today believes that the economy of a nation can only be transformed when the right Agriculture investments are made” she added.
She added that, 321 farmers made up of 195 males and 126 females benefited from the Planting for Export and Rural Development while 356 farmers making up of 241 males and 115 famales benefited from Planting for Food and Jobs but lamented that, this year’s figures are very low as a result of the Non availability of subsidized fertilizers into the Municipality by their input dealers.
She admonished Farmers in the area to understand the concepts and adopt environmentally friendly and cost-effective technologies as far as food safety is concern to help reduce the mortality and morbidity in animals revealing that, their veterinary personnels vaccinated 34,000 cattle, 2,000 sheep and goats and 25,111 poultry against CBPP, PPR, Newcastle, Gumboro and Fowl pox respectively.
The Agric Director expressed gratitude to the East Gonja Municipal Assembly for willingly supporting this year’s farmers day celebrations with recognitions also to SEND-GHANA, WORLD VISION and notable stakeholders who invested in Agriculture for a better and transformed Ghana and called on all to support and encourage more people to venture into farming as well as encourage the consumption of made in Ghana goods to boost the Ghanaian economy.
The Kulpi health sector personnels used the occasion to carry out some health screening exercise particularly on HIV/AIDS.
Source: Imoru Alhassan (Shungbanye)
0208255222
