Kwadwo Oppong Nkrumah Donates Tricycle To Akyemansa District Best Farmer
The Akyemansa District of the Easter Region presented assorted items to 20 farmers as their prizes at the Farmers Day celebration held at Akyem Adubiase. which had as its theme::”Ensuring Agribusiness Development Under COVID 19 Opportunities And Challenges”.
It was the District’s 12th in the series in the celebration of the national event.
The Minister of lnformation who is the Member of Parliament for Ofoase Ayirebi, Hon Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, was in attendance as well as the District Chief Executive, Hon Paul Asamoah.
Hon. Kwadwo Oppong Nkrumah donated a tricycle to the best farmer in the district. The other award winners received assorted items such as bicycles, wheelbarrows, spraying machines, watering cans, radios sets, cutlasses, warranty boots, clothes and certificates.
He said, farming which dates back to creation and comes only after hunting as the oldest vocation is the live wire of every nation. He said it is in view of this that the government attaches so much importance to the needs and welfare of farmers.
He said looking at the value chain, the technical people particularly, Agric Extension Officers, have also contributed extensively in sustaining the agric sector;
“Without the Agric Extension Officers the numerous government’s interventions would not have been possible in sustaining the feeding of students in the Senior High Schools who are enjoying free education.
Hon. Oppong Nkrumah said the construction of ware houses and the establishment of both the National Buffer Stock and the Ghana Commodity Exchange have all become beneficial in improving the nation’s food stock.
“ In certain parts of the country, the production of rice has picked with a quite a number of the youth going into its cultivation.” He noted.
He reminded the gathering that with the establishment of the Tree Crop Authority another avenue has been opened for those who want to go into the cultivation of the non-traditional crops to get ready market for their produce.
According to Hon Oppong Nkrumah the government has introduced measures that can help farmers to have their own social security or insurance scheme to cushion them when they become old.
He said it is in fulfillment of this that some officials have been sent to some cocoa farms to take the measurement of their size.
Mr Oppong Nkrumah also explained that to help make readily available cocoa inputs particularly, fertilizers government has decided to subsidize the price to the farmers.
The Information Minister also used the occasion to appeal to the gathering to observe the COVID-19 protocols “because there has been a surge in the spread of the pandemic lately.”
The DCE Hon Paul Asamoah, for his part said the government has increased the price of cocoa to boost production and urged cocoa farmers to be motivated by the gesture to work harder to produce more cocoa for the government to earn more revenue.