We owe farmers debt of gratitude

For the past 40 years, as a country, we have been consistent in showing gratitude to our hardworking farmers for their commitment to feed us.

And so, every year, Ghanaians join hands to honour and celebrate these farmers for not only feeding us but also contributing significantly to the national GDP.

Surely, we have every right to be grateful to these farmers who toil to make life worth living.

In fact, without food, we could not have had enough energy to be celebrating anybody. Food, indeed, is life, and so farmers are worth celebrating.

This year's celebration, on the theme: "Building Climate-Resilient Agriculture for Sustainable Food Security", was significant.

It emphasised the nation's commitment to adapt to agricultural practices in response to climate change challenges.

As a nation, we must transform our agriculture in response to climate change if we are truly committed to ensuring food sufficiency for the citizenry.

The need to sensitise our farmers to adopt innovative ways of farming, resort to using improved seeds that are drought-resistant and early maturing and, more importantly, the need to provide these farmers with weather information is now more urgent than ever.

The near-drought situation that the country experienced at the beginning of the farming season this year signals the need for innovative and modern-day farming practices to keep our farmers going.

In this direction, the Daily Graphic urges the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to step up its collaboration with the Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMet) for timely weather information for farmers to enable them to know when to start their farming activities.

The role of the agricultural extension agents is, thus, crucial in bridging the gap between this knowledge and modern farming methods.

Unfortunately, most of the smallholder farmers who produce almost all our food requirements are not very literate and rely heavily on the agents for information.

The GMet can also partner local radio stations to disseminate this information in the local languages.

As we celebrate our farmers, it is right to acknowledge the various governments over the last 40 years for ensuring that the National Farmers Day truly remains a national event devoid of political colouration.

It is in this vein that every election year, the celebration is held in November instead of the first Friday of December so that the event is not politicised.

The Daily Graphic is excited that the event is enriched yearly to make it even more relevant and responsive to contemporary issues about the country’s agriculture.

For instance, for the second year running, the National Farmers Day celebration has been preceeded by a week-long exhibition to showcase an impressive array of products and innovations, from food crops to advanced farming machinery and inputs.

The event, dubbed “Agrifest”, always attracts huge participation from actors in the agricultural space. This year, the exhibition, which was coordinated by Agrihouse Foundation, attracted more than 190 exhibitors from across the country’s agricultural sector.

The exhibition gives all the regions the platform to showcase their agricultural potential, inviting potential investors to take advantage of the opportunity.

Another innovation worth mentioning is the National Farmers' Awards Night which replaces the durbar where the winners received their awards.

This year, the week-long activities were climaxed at the Alisa Hotel, where all the national and regional award winners were hosted to a dinner and awards night.

The ceremony was graced by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo who presented the winner with the overall national award.

While acknowledging the innovative way to make the farmers feel that they also deserve to sit in a plush and serene environment over bottles of wine and champagne to receive the award, the Daily Graphic believes that the durbar is still relevant.
We are of the opinion that the durbar added more euphoria and colour to the event and also made it more participatory as every citizen could just walk in to witness the crowning of the ‘farmer king or queen’ instead of the indoor event. Again, we suggest that if the closed-door event would continue, there should be more awareness-creation for people to at least resort to their TV to also witness the event.