Young Poultry farmer crowned Miss Agriculture

A young female poultry farmer, Ruth Awintanga, has been crowned at this year’s Miss Agriculture Ghana Food Festival event held in Accra.

Miss Awintanga who hails from the Upper East Region and a student at the University of Media, Arts and Culture (UNIMAC) beat competition from four other contestants to win the pageant which was intended to attract and encourage more women into  agribusiness by highlighting and sharing the success stories of women in the sector.

Held on the theme, “Youth and women participation in agribusiness: Telling our story, then and now”, the event was organised by the Women in Agribusiness Ghana under the auspices of the 2022 National Best Farmer.

Miss Agriculture

The competition saw five finalists compete for the title and the prize of an opportunity to undertake a one-year project to promote women and young people’s participation in agriculture.

The contestants were a poultry farmer, Francisca Aggrey, a pig farmer, Dora Anterkyi, a food processor, Najat Hamid Mohammed,  a pineapple farmer, Eunice Ohene, and the eventual winner, Miss Awintanga.

Each of the contestants took their turn to impress the judges on why they should be crowned Miss Agriculture through creative demonstrations, agro in fashion, talent presentation and project presentation.

Musician and TV personality, Akosua Agyapong, Director in Charge of Policy, Research, Monitoring and Evaluation at the National Commission on Culture; Fio Richardson Commey, and Cultural Ambassador, Georgina Opoku, popularly known as Asor, served as the judges for the event.

The judges assessed, scrutinised and gave some advice to the contestants on how best they could promote their agribusinesses and agriculture as a whole across the country.

The ever energetic Akosua Agyapong delivered a thrilling performance of her song, “Gye Wani”, and also performed her famous robotic dance as part of the entertainment for the event.

After their performances, Miss  Anterkyi was awarded the Most Influential contestant, Miss Mohammed was adjudged the Most Innovative Queen, the Best Catwalk went to Miss Aggrey, while Miss Awintanga  won the prize for Most Eloquent.

Combine technology and knowledge

Speaking at the event, the 2022 National Best Farmer, Nana Yaw Sarpong Siriboe I, advised women and young people to acquire adequate knowledge of the specific area in agriculture they wanted to venture into.

He urged them to identify what they wanted to plant, start right and be consistent, saying, “go to institutions such as the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to learn. You must combine old ways and modern trends,” he advised.

Nana Siriboe I, who is also the Akyempemhene of the Juaben Traditional Area and the owner of Siribore farms, expressed his excitement about the event and said his farms would soon open a training school to train and mentor women and young people in agriculture.

He described women as the backbone of agriculture, as they accounted for over half of the agricultural workforce and for two-thirds of food crops in Ghana.

Also, women, he said, dominated the marketing and sales of farm produce, and gave recognition to the work women put into agriculture.

Hindrance

In spite of these significant roles, Nana Siriboe I said they were faced with challenges that hindered their progress in the sector, naming some of those challenges as restrictive access to land, finance, discrimination and cultural barriers.

He expressed the hope that the pageant would create an enabling environment and give opportunities to deliberate on such issues.

Nana Siriboe also urged the contestants to go out there and serve as mentors to other women to take the front seat of agriculture in Ghana.

He also urged them to work together to promote agriculture across the country.

Support women 

The founder of Miss Agriculture Ghana, Esther Kyerewaa Twumasi, said the participation of the youth and women in agribuisness had evolved immensely over the years.