Farmers deserve commendation — LaDMA MCE

The Chief Executive of the La Dadekotopon Municipal Assembly (LaDMA), Ms Rita Odoley Sowah, has called for policies and programmes that will encourage and attract the youth to venture into large-scale farming.

She said the celebration of farmers day for instance should serve as an incentive for the youth to take up farming as a profession and not consider it as an occupation of the elderly and the less educated in society. 

Speaking at this year’s Farmers Day celebration organised by LaDMA at the Trade Fair Centre in La, Accra on Friday, Ms Odoley said the government had put in place a number of measures to ensure that farmers in the country derived maximum benefits from their work. 

Recounting the history of Farmers Day, she said 30 years ago, the country resolved to honour its farmers and fishermen for their hard work, and as such set a day aside to reward them for their tireless efforts at providing for the people and industries.

Considerable Level

She said through hard work and loyalty of farmers, the country had over the years been able to attain a considerable level of food security and so there could not be a better way to recognise them  than to create a platform for them to be celebrated.

She said the theme for this year’s celebration, “Eat What We Grow” suggested that Ghana had the potential  to adequately feed its people and industries, since it was endowed with fertile and arable lands.

Agricultural Sector

According to the MCE, the agricultural sector contributes significantly to the socio-economic growth of the country and employ not less than 65 per cent of the country’s total workforce.

She said adding value to our farm produce was the surest way of ensuring that people ate what they grew. She said food items processed by local industries  for domestic consumption still retained their nutritional value because they were fresh, in sharp contrast to imported food products.

Fifteen farmers

In all, 15 farmers in the municipality won various awards. They were presented with farming tools and other items. The overall best farmer award went to Ex Warrant Officer Class One (WO1)  Michael Yaw Anyomi.

The La Mantse, Nii Kpobi Tetteh Tsuru, who was the chairman for the occasion, commended the farmers and urged them to work even harder in order to win more awards next year.