Farmers go wild over award prizes

Scores of farmers who were nominated for the 30th edition of the 2014 National Farmers' Day have lashed out at the district, regional and national organising planning committees of the annual national event.

According to them, the much-hyped event, held at the district, regional and national levels in the country on Friday, December 5, 2014 was poorly organised, urging the organising planning committees to buck up to avoid the collapse of the event in the near future.


Speaking on various local radio networks, the farmers revealed that everything concerning the this year's National Farmers’ Day celebration including the selection process, announcement of nominees, access to the event grounds and the presentation of awards to the farmers were done in a poor manner.


The farmers noted that they read about their nomination for the awards in the newspapers, adding that nobody from the event organising planning committees constituted by the government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) called to inform them about their nominations.


The farmers added that some of the nominees struggled in their districts and regions before they were able to lay hands on accreditation to enter the various venues.


They indicated that most of the award winners in the district, regional and national levels did not attend the event, stating that “perhaps they did not attend the programme due to the poor management.”

But speaking on GTV Morning Breakfast Show held in Sefwi-Wiaso in the Western region last week Friday, deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture in-charge of Crops, Dr. Ahmed Yakubu Alhassan, jumped to the defence of this year's organising planning committees of the National Farmers' Day.


Although he admitted that there were some technical challenges, he said his outfit worked to streamline the situation.


He went on to deny the assertion of the farmers’ that the event was poorly organised.


Dr. Alhassan said the selection process was “very unique,” adding that the selection team went down to the villages to select the farmers who deserved to win the awards.


“It is not true that we did not extend the selection process to the villages,” he stressed.

He, therefore, charged the disgruntled farmers to provide evidence to support their claims.


When asked why the farmers threatened to boycott this year's National Farmers' Day, the deputy minister intimated that the farmers’ action was motivated by some “faceless Ghanaians” to deliberately portray the government as an enemy of farmers.


It would be recalled that an official statement was issued by the National President of the Concerned Farmers Association of Ghana, Nana Obiadie Bonteng Bonsu, on November 25, 2014 that threatened to boycott this year’s Farmers’ Day which event came off December 5 at Sefwi-Wiawso in the Western region to protest government’s neglect of farmers.


Earlier, our Eastern Regional Correspondent, David Kodjo Sackey, reported that that the last Friday award winners of this year’s Farmers’ Day celebration registered their displeasure against the regional Agriculture Planning Committee for awarding them with what they described as “unpleasant and unbeneficial items” that could not enhance their work.


According to our regional correspondent, the award winners who were given knapsack sprayers, a pair of wellington boots, litters of weedicide, bottles of Joy “Dadi” Bitters and pieces of T-roll each said the items were not worth to be given to an award winner.