Government has re-echoed its commitment to improving agriculture to guarantee food security in the country.

President John Mahama told farmers, during the Farmers Day celebration, on Friday that he recognizes the country’s economic transformation will be hinged on agriculture and promised sustained commitment to transform the sector into a technology-based one.

Sector minister Kwesi Ahwoi told Joy News government is pursuing an aggressive irrigation project, to ensure the abundance of food in the country and for export.

“We are going to put 500,000 hectares of land under irrigation. This will include the Accra plains which is 150,000 hectares. If you went to the North it will include Fombisie, Katanga and all those valleys that are liable to irrigation,” he stated.

The Farmers’ Day ceremony yesterday, was used to award hard working farmers across the country, with thirty-eight year old Lamuel Quarshie Mantey from the Central Region, emerging as the overall National Best Farmer for 2012.

He was grateful to government for its support to the sector over the years and encouraged the youth to seriously consider farming as a full time business.