Harmattan prevents Veep from flying to Farmers Day ceremony in Bolga
The Vice President, Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur who was expected to grace this year's National Farmers' Day celebration in Bolgatanga was unable to attend due to bad weather which prevented him from flying from Accra on Friday morning.
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The severity of the harmattan weather is affecting air travel in northern Ghana and as a result, flights to Northern Ghana were cancelled on Friday morning. The Farmer's Day ceremony is being held at the Bolgatanga Girls' Senior High School park.
On Thursday for instance some commercial drivers plying the Tamale-Bolgatanga road complained that they had to put on their headlamps and fog lights throughout their journeys to be able to see ahead of them clearly.
In all, 78 farmers are being awarded at Friday's ceremony. The theme for the celebration is "Transform Ghana:Invest in Agriculture".
The Farmers' Day was instituted by the Provisional National Defense Council(PNDC) government in 1985 in recognition of the vital role farmers and fishers played in the economy especially the highly commendable output of farmers and fishermen in 1984 during which Agriculture contributed to 30percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product(GDP).
This achievement came after the bad agricultural years of 1982 and 1983 which saw the nation experiencing drought and wild bush fires.The day is therefore set aside to motivate farmers and to encourage them to produce more.
The first National Farmers' Day was celebrated on the first Friday of December 1986 at Osino in the Eastern Region.The first best farmer received two machetes, a pair of Wellington boots and a preset radio.
However the value of the awards has improved from year to year moving from bicycle to power tillers to tractors, to pick-ups and presently to a three-bedroom house which started in the year 2002. The last time the celebration was held in the Upper East Region was in 1999.
