Dormaa Ahenkro (B/A) Dec. 8, GNA - Nineteen deserving farmers were on Friday presented with various awards at Kwameasua as part of the 23rd national farmers' day celebration in Dormaa district in Brong Ahafo. Mr. Augustine Effah, a 39-year old farmer at Akontanim in the newly created Dormaa East district won the overall district best farmer award and took home a bicycle, a high density foam mattress, a pair of Wellington boots, a spraying gun, five cutlasses, a wireless set and a certificate.

Squadron Leader Ben Anane Asamoah (rtd), District Chief Executive, called on the nation's farmers not to regard the national farmers day only as an annual forum instituted by the government to reward them but also as an occasion for them to assess their successes and failures. "As the traditionally acclaimed prime movers of the nation's economy, no stone should be left unturned to make farming more attractive especially to the teeming youth in the countryside", he said. The DCE tasked agricultural extension officers of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to lay emphasis on the use of modern methods and best practices in agriculture to ensure optimum yield and sustenance of agricultural interest among farmers.

He said personal experiences had shown that, "the youth of today dread and shun agriculture because of the colonial connotation of farming being the preserve of the illiterate and the poor in society who deserved to be punished".

Squadron Leader Asamoah expressed the need for Ghanaians to utilize agriculture as the springboard to providing the necessary impetus to the nation's quest to become a middle income country. He noted that the district performed poorly in averting bushfire during the 2006-7 harmattan season leading to the destruction of several acres of cocoa and food crops in the district.

The DCE therefore appealed to traditional authorities, religious groups and civil society to evolve strategies that would make bush burning less attractive in the district.

Nana Adjei Damuah, Brong Ahafo Regional chief farmer, noted that the Ghanaian farmer was always in a dilemma as a result of fixed cost of implements and fluctuating prices of their farm produce on the market. He appealed to the government to consider re-introducing subsidies on agricultural implements, while supporting the farmers to add value to their farm produce to mitigate post-harvest losses. Mr. Chou En Lai Paul Ankomah, chairman of the district anti-bushfire task force, called for vigilance among farmers to avoid the recurrence of avoidable fires in March this year. He announced that the task force had begun educating the people on the dangers posed by wild fires and the punishment available for those who would flout the rules.

Mr. Ankomah said the force's doors were opened for negotiations with those who used fire during the harmattan for their businesses, including akpeteshie distilling, to ensure that their activities did not cause any havoc in the dry season.

Mr. Edward Badu, Dormaa district director of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, urged farmers in the district to accept and adopt the advice offered by agriculture extension officers so that their toil as farmers would not end in vain.

He tasked the agriculture extension officers to approach their clients with culture-friendly educational strategies in order to get them to accept modern methods of agriculture. 08 Dec. 07