Twenty-one farmers in the Tano South District have been honoured with prizes for distinguished contribution to the development of agriculture in the area.

Mr. Matthew Ayamba, 60, from Kwasu-Aboda, was adjudged the overall best district farmer and he was presented with a motorbike, two spraying machines, wellington boots, cutlasses, watering can and wax print.

The other award winners also took home bicycles, refrigerator, spraying machines, watering cans, cutlasses, wellington boots, wax print, wheel-barrows and key-bar soap.

This was at this year’s national farmers’ day celebration held at Techimantia under the theme: “Transform Ghana, Invest in Agriculture”.

The District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr. Zakaria Bukari Anaba, saluted the farmers for their hard work and pledged the government’s continued support to enable them to increase crop production and returns.

He hinted that one million high-yielding and disease-resistant cocoa seedlings would be distributed freely to farmers in the area during the coming cropping season.

This year, a total of 600,000 cocoa seedling, together with large quantity of fertilizers were supplied to farmers in the district.

He urged them to heed the advice of extension officers and adopt improved farming practices.

He said to facilitate smooth evacuation of cocoa, about 30.5 kilometres of cocoa roads in the district would be rehabilitated.

Mr Anaba noted that the agriculture sector remained vital for the rapid transformation of the economy and urged increased investment and private sector participation to make the sector attractive, particularly to the youth.

He cautioned the people to be careful in their handling of naked fire as the harmattan approached to prevent wildfires.

Nana Ampong Komantan II, Krontihene of Techimantia, complained about the bad nature of roads running across the area and said these needed to be fixed.

He described as worrying the situation where food crops got rotten because of the difficulty of transporting these from the farm gates to the marketing centres.

Nana Komatan appealed for the establishment of a tomato factory in the district to process raw tomatoes produced by the youth.

Mr. Godfred Dwamena, the District Director of Agriculture, expressed concern about the erratic rainfall pattern, which had badly affected crop production.