National Farmers Day: President announces free tertiary education for cocoa farmers children

The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has directed the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) to provide scholarship for every cocoa farmer’s child at the tertiary education level in the country.

This means that all children of cocoa farmers qualify for free tertiary education through the Cocoa Scholarship.

The President also announced an upward adjustment in the producer price of cocoa from GH¢48,000 to GH¢49,600 per tonne or from GH¢3,000 per bag to GH¢3,100.

That, he said, was to ensure that as the market changed there were periodic reviews to restore farmers income.

Farmers Day

President Akufo-Addo said this in Accra last Friday at the National Farmers Day Awards and Dinner Night.

The event, which was the 40th, was on the theme: "Building Climate Resilient Agriculture for Sustainable Food Security".

It was attended by award winning farmers from across the country, ministers of state, Members of Parliament (MPs) and a host of dignitaries.

Instead of the first Friday in December, the Farmers Day celebration was held last Friday due to the general election which falls on December 7, this year.

Relief

President Akufo-Addo said the Cocoa Scholarship had been a source of relief to parents in paying their children's school fees, but with the implementation of the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) policy, the objective had become moot.

"Today, I have directed COCOBOD to provide scholarships to every cocoa farmer’s child at the tertiary level," he said.

The President said cocoa farmers were now registered on to the Cocoa Management System and it was thus easy to track them.

"With my tenure drawing to a close, I look forward to returning to my home in Kyebi where I would be tending  cattle, sheep and  goats given to me by traditional rulers across the country," he said, and extended an invitation to the farmers to visit him there to reminisce and reflect on the memories and achievements they shared.

"Let us keep building and supporting each other. It is one Ghana, united in purpose," he stated.

Climate Change

Speaking on efforts being made by the government to support farmers to adapt to climate change, the President said empowering them (farmers) with information meant giving them a fighting chance against the unpredictability of climate change.

In addition to that, he said, water management was another crucial element in building climate-resilient agriculture.

"Rain-fed agriculture is vulnerable to fluctuations in rainfall, leaving farmers helpless during long dry spells or droughts, like what happened recently in many parts of the northern regions," President Akufo-Addo said.

Recognising such vulnerability, Nana Akufo-Addo said his government had made significant investments in irrigation infrastructure across the country, saying, "we have developed irrigation facilities in the Northern, Upper East, Upper West, and Eastern regions, covering a total area of 4,870 hectares.

He said the government had also introduced climate-resilient crop varieties for adaptation, adding that "these varieties are specifically bred to thrive under the challenging conditions posed by climate change.”

To curb post-harvest losses, the President disclosed that the government was working on establishing a 6,000-tonne silo facility in Hwehwe in the Kwahu Eastern District, aimed to store staple crops such as maize and rice, as part of our strategic grain reserve programme.

Climate change threat

The 2024 National Best Farmer, Nana Owusu Achiaw, 70, said current changes in the climate, coupled with human activities, posed a serious threat to food security in the country.

He, therefore, called on all stakeholders to come together to find lasting solutions to land degradation across the country, which invariably affected food production and quality.

"Amid the difficulties associated with farming which pose a serious threat to food security, it is refreshing to note that for decades, the work of the farmer in contributing to our nation building has been recognised and continuously celebrated by successive governments.

"This serves as motivation enough to wake up in the morning through rain or shine to our various farms to provide the necessary and basic commodity needed to sustain life," Nana Achiaw said.

The award, he said, did not only recognise farmers’ hard work, but also served as a reminder of how important their work to Ghanaians’ existence as a people was.

He said it had become more important, most especially, in a present world where food inflation was a major problem for most economies, including Ghana.

"It, therefore, puts on us a major responsibility to improve on our production, and to be able to feed every single individual, from the poorest to the richest," Nana Achiaw added.