Support for this year’s Farmers’ Day celebration is on the decline as compared to previous years, the Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture in charge of Crops, Yaw Frimpong Addo, has said.
This, he attributed to the current economic situation facing the country.
Mr Addo said this yesterday when two institutions – New Okaff Industries Limited and Yara Ghana donated items and cheques to support the 38th edition of the National Farmers’ Day celebration.
The day will be commemorated on Friday, December 2, at Koforidua in the Eastern Region under the theme “Accelerating agricultural development through value addition.”
“Around this time last year, we had gone past this stage, the donations had come in droves but this year it has not come like that and we understand because of the economic situation that we find ourselves in,” he said.
Mr Addo said despite the situation, there was the need to celebrate farmers because of their hard work and given the country’s good harvest this year.
He said it was rather unfortunate that the donations from the private sector was not forthcoming like it used to, adding that the Ministry was in expectation of more donation to enable it reward farmers.
The Deputy Minister said with just two weeks left for the celebration, only two private institutions had donated so far but said the Bank of Ghana (BoG) had presented a cheque explaining that the BoG was a quasi-government institution.
He said the ministry had scaled down the categories for this year’s celebration as well as the products given to the regions and districts for the awardees explaining that due to the financial difficulties the awards would be limited to outstanding farmers in the various categories.
Mr Addo who is the Chairman for this year’s Farmers’ Day Planning Committee stated that the number of days for the celebration had also been reduced from five to three days to help cut down cost.
He was hopeful that other organisations will come on board to support this year’s Farmers’ Day.
New Okaff Industries Limited presented boxes of AF Confident Insecticide, Organic Liquid fertilizer, Natural bath and anti-snake laver repellent worth GH¢75,000 and a cheque for GH¢20,000.
For Yara Ghana, it donated 100 (25kg) bags of fertiliser at a cost of GH¢50,000 and a cheque for GH¢25,000.
The Commercial Director for New Okaff Industries Limited, Kwasi Boamah Adomako, said his outfit had decided to support farmers every year because of their immense contribution to the country.
He was of the view that it would have been difficult for Ghanaians to survive without farmers and therefore called on corporate organisations to support this year’s Farmers’ Day.
The Commercial Manager for Yara Ghana, Theophilus Djorbuah, said despite the economic challenges, his outfit had come on board to support this year’s farmers day and urged other corporate organisations to support to enable the ministry celebrate and award farmers this year.
BY JEMIMA ESINAM KUATSINU & CHARLOTTE BARNS
