The West Gonja Municipal Assembly in the Savannah region has on Friday, 2nd December, 2022, marked the 38th Farmers’ Day celebration at Murugu, to reward gallant hardworking farmers for their imense contributions to the development of the municipality and Ghana.
The department of Agric in the West Gonja Municipality this year awarded 15 farmers comprising 13 men and 2 women including one agric extension officers.
Alhaji Adam Gariba was crowned the overall best farmer for 2022. Mr. Lange Wareh won the first runner up and Mr Zakaria Abdul-Kudus, 2nd runner up.
Motorbikes, Wallington boots, knapsacks sprayer, cutlasses, Yara fertilizer bags were awarded to the farmers
The Municipal Chief Executive, Hon. Musah Karim Kusubari in his address expressed his happiness to farmers and fisher folks who have worked hard to ensure food security of the entire nation over the years.
Farmers’ Day celebration in the municipality which sort to acknowledge the enormous and invaluable efforts of our gallant farmers and fishermen who have kept the wheels of our agro – industries running and feeding the population in this time of sustainable development goals.
Hon. Musah explained that this year’s farmers day celebration is jointly celebrated by the Savannah Regional Coordinating Council and the West Gonja Municipal Assembly with the theme: Accelerating Agricultural Development through Value Addition.
Noting that “the choice of this theme is timely due to the fact that Agricultural production alone cannot lead us to achieving the desired transformation that we aspire to see in the agricultural sector if we do not speed up our value addition drive”
He also explained that some agricultural commodities such as vegetables, yam, cassava, tomatoes, potatoes are perishable in nature while commodities such as groundnut, cowpea, maize, among others can not give the farmer the desire returns when sold raw compared to when processed.
“Agriculture is now a business and as such should be dynamic. The dynamism means that we need to have more food systems from production to consumption. This calls for value addition”
He therefore encouraged farmers, most especially women to practice packaging and branding to attract faster and reliable market for agricultural commodities.
“Packaging and branding are practices that should be encouraged, not by intermediaries alone but by farmers, particularly women farmers. Adoption of improved packaging methods would attract faster and reliable market for agricultural commodity especially when linked with shop operators or advertised on available platforms”. He said
“The benefits of value addition are that the farmer gets assurance of produce disposal after production as intermediaries would absorb the produce for the further processing. Value Addition drive would put a lot more people to work as off-farm agricultural services providers who would add value to the primary commodity to attract higher return”.
Hon. Musah said the department of agriculture has always and will continue to offer technical support to farmers in the municipality. Agricultural technologies will be rapidly deployed at the community level to enhance agricultural production and productivity.
The Regional Agriculture Director, Alhaji Seidu Suleimana in his address explained that, the climate condition in the region provides adequate rainfall patterns that supports agriculture development
“A total of 1,262mm rains were received however the distribution was skewed and highly erratic. A lot of farmers shifted to the cultivation of soyabeans this year as a result of the high cost of fertilizer and other farm inputs”
“Projection for the 2022 production year, may see a fall in maize by 10%, whiles rice, Groundnuts and soyabeans may increase, with soyabeans been projected to be increase by a margin of over 100% in the region”
He added that the region is endowed with rich and fertile lands suitable for the cultivation of several crops coupled with water bodies for large scale of irrigation. Claiming that the region has the potential of producing large metric tons of maize, rice, soyabeans, cowpea as well as trees crops such as cashew and sheanuts.
On agricultural challenges, the Agriculture Director lamented on the challenges that serve a stumbling block for Savannah Region to be the gateway to the north and the food basket of Ghana includes; Deforestation, how stray cattles are destroying farms which has seen a steep down trend in the production of cassava in the region, the high cost of tractor ploughing, the high cost stretching soyabeans and maize and therefore calling on all stakeholders concern to work together to address the situation.
The municipal best farmer Mr. Alhaji Adam Gariba Express his excitement in receiving the award as the 38th West Gonja Municipal best farmer
Mr. Alhaji Adam Gariba In an exclusive interview with Damongo based PAD FM disclosed that the award will encourage him in next farming season to do more to promote food security in the Municipality. Adding that the award will encourage him to work harder so as to emerge the overall best farmer of Savannah Region come next year.
He therefore said, the award will serve as a motivation to his colleague farmers in Municipality to work assiduously.
“Farming is a good business, thought it comes with it’s challenges, young people should take farming serious it will generate income for them and the country at large”
Hon. musah congratulated all award winners and all hardworking farmers on the occasion of the 38th Farmers’ Day celebration and commended all those who supported in cash and in kind towards this year’s awards, with specific mention to the Hon. member of parliament for Damongo, Samuel Abu Jinapor, Kintampo Rural Bank Ltd, GCB Bank, the chiefs and people of Murugu
The program saw the presence of traditional leaders, political heads, security agencies, heads of departments and other well-known personalities gracing the event at Murugu, in the Murugu Electoral Area.
Source; PAD FM, Gogu Edwin/0555588660
