Ketu South NDC salutes Farmers

The leadership of the NDC in Ketu South Municipality of The Volta Region has extended its commendations to farmers and fisher folks in the Constituency on their relentless commitment to feed the nation.

In a statement issued and signed by The Constituency Secretary, Desmond Kwaku Tsewu said: “We share in your deserving joy on such an occasion as this but more importantly in your numerous challenges”.

Ketu South Municipality is one of the leading producers of vegetables in the country and they produced largely for the European market in the area of fresh Carrot, Green pepper, Okro, Onion among others.

The statement however, urged Government to support farmers for them to give out their best……”We in the NDC strongly believe that farmers across the nation deserve better conditions in respect of the issues affecting their farming activities”.

Below is the original full statement:

KETU SOUTH NDC SALUTES FARMERS ON THE CELEBRATION OF THEIR 35TH FARMERS DAY ANNIVERSARY

The leadership of the NDC in Ketu South extends its commendations to our indefatigable farmers and fisherfolks in the Constituency on their relentless commitment to feed our nation.

We share in your deserving joy onStsuch an occasion as this but more importantly in your numerous challenges.

We in the NDC strongly believe that farmers across the nation deserve better conditions in respect of the issues affecting their farming activities.

As you can recall, the National Farmers Day was instituted by the PNDC government led by President Jerry John Rawlings with the view to not only rewarding deserving and outstanding farmers and fishermen of the year who have selflessly sacrificed to feed the nation by ensuring food security, but also to critically assess the living conditions of your dedicated men and women in the industry.

Sadly, we have noticed with great chagrin, the high cost of farm inputs, high electricity tariffs that especially aggravate the plights of our vegetable farmers coupled with the perennial challenges of selling their onions after harvest in the Constituency.

Beside the bad road network which the NPP government has deliberately ignored to fix due to political reasons best known to them, resulting in the unprecedented difficulty of transporting your produce to our local markets, we have also noticed the notorious attempt to profit on subsidized fertilizer by middle men and the smuggling of same to Togo in recent months.

The NDC in Ketu South has further noticed with great displeasure, the untoward harship inflicted on our fisherfolks with the introduction of the closed season by the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia administration beside the artificial hoarding and calculated delay in delivering premix fuel to the landing beaches leading to high cost of sale of premix and as a matter of urgency call on the government to immediately address those problems in the Constituency.

We however assure, our gallant farmers within the Constituency that the next Mahama administration in 2021 will not relent on its determination to improve the living conditions of our farmers and fisherfolks through the reintroduction of the subsidized distribution of 40HP Yamaha outboard motors and the drastic reduction of premix fuel prices to the approved rate.

On that note, we wish our farmers a joyous celebration and urge them to return the NDC to power in the 2020 elections.

Happy National Farmers Day!!

—-Signed—-

*Desmond Kwaku Tsewu*

Secretary/NDC Ketu South

6/12/2019