35 Year Old KNUST Student Wins Asokwa Municipality Best Farmer Accolade
Thirty-five year old student of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Mr Samuel Osei Nyantakyi, on Friday emerged as the overall best farmer for the Asokwa Municipality at the 36th National Farmers’ Day.
Mr Nyantakyi is into animal husbandry and rears animals such as pigs, goats, and sheep and is also into poultry farming.
In addition to this, he is also into crop farming and coconut plantation as well and has been into farming for a while now.
For his prize, he took home a tricycle better known as aboboya, a certificate, wellington boots, a standing fan and other farm inputs.
He became the second person to win the overall best farmer award since its inception in the municipality.
MUNICIPAL CHIEF EXECUTIVE (MCE)
Earlier in his address, the Municipal Chief Executive of Asokwa, Mr Akwannuasah Gyimah, praised farmers for their hard work which has sustained the nation all these years.
He said even though the municipality was a very urban one, a lot of the residents were into farming and a leading producer of vegetables in the region.
He said about two-thirds of all vegetables sold in markets in Kumasi and its surrounding districts come from Asokwa.
Due to the hard work of the vegetable growers in the municipality, the MCE said the Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, has promised to assist them with a storage facility to help them store their produce and even export them to the international markets.
Mr Gyimah said gradually farming in the municipality was moving from the old subsistence farming to a commercial one where people were investing into their farming activities to also earn some income from it.
As a result, he said the municipality was seeing an increase in the number of people venturing into farming and also encouraged the youth to go into farming and build a future themselves.
He said the government was also helping farmers through various programmes to expand their farms and increase their productivity.
He said through the Planting for Food and Jobs, the country was also to survive the COVID-19 lockdown period without food import.
He said that was the result of the programme which ensured that there was enough food in the country.
Story Michael Ofosu-Afriyie, Kumasi