A forty-six (46) year old widow and mother of five (5) children from Deve, a small farming community in the North Tongu District of the Volta Region was adjudged the overall best District Farmer in this year’s annual Farmers’ Day celebration recently held at Kpomkpo in the Dorfor Traditional Area of the district. This is the first time a female farmer had received an award as the best farmer for the district.
The event brought together people from nearby communities, farmers, and traditional leaders to grace the occasion in their numbers. Apart from cultural drumming and dancing that characterized the celebration, there was also an exhibition of all manner of farm produce grown in various parts of the district.
The ten (10) awardee farmers received items ranging from certificates, knapsack sprayers, weedicides, wellington boots, fridges and wheelbarrows with the topmost awards being a motorbike and tricycle going to the runner-up and best farmer respectively.
District Director of Agriculture for the area, Mr. Peter Heh touched on the major challenges facing agriculture in the district and appealed to custodians of land in the area to reserve lands for agriculture in the district.
He said, the difficulty in accessing farmlands, climate change, high interest and difficulty in accessing loans for agriculture, disease and pest outbreak, water pollution and most importantly the taste of Ghanaians for imported items, continue to confront the sector’s efforts at commercializing agriculture in the district.
According to him, government through the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) has since 2017 taken steps to address food security challenges through its flagship Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) and other initiatives. Further disclosed that in 2020 alone, the district Agricultural Department has so far distributed 7,970 bags of subsidized fertilizer to 1,660 farmers across the district. The beneficiary farmers comprised of 1,253 males and 407 females.
Hon. Richard Collins Arku, District Chief Executive (DCE) for the area announced that under the Planting for Export and Rural Development (PERD) initiative of government, more than six thousand (6,000) cashew seedlings have so far been distributed to farmers across the district to provide alternative cash crop livelihoods for the citizenry. The beneficiaries included fourteen (14) males and one (1) female from three (3) communities, all on a total of 150 acres of land.
Mr. Arku urged all interested farmers to take advantage of the 44,000 cashew seedlings available at the MOFA nursing sites to improve their income and promote PERD in the district.
In all, ten farmers drawn from various parts of the district were honoured. Mr. Lumor Torzo, 65 from Aveyime received the Physically Challenged Award at the event while Mr. Thomas Agbodza, 42 and Madam Grace Aku Aglago, 47, all from Avedotoe were adjudged Best Crop and Livestock Farmers respectively.
