President John Mahama has warned that anybody caught smuggling fertilizer and other cocoa supporting inputs, outside the borders of Ghana will be severely punished.
He said such nefarious activities have greatly affected government’s yearly projections for the cash crop over the years.
According to him, government will continue to improve the purchase price of cocoa from the farmers in order to improve their standard of living.
Speaking at this year’s farmers’ day celebrations, at Sefwi-Wiawso in the Western region, Friday, Mahama said smugglers will be penalised regardless of their status in society.
“….No matter who it is, if you catch anybody diverting the inputs, kindly bring him to the appropriate authorities and they will be sanctioned as they deserve”.
He however said the nation has made a lot of progress in achieving food sufficiency despite the huge food import bill of more than 1.5 billion dollars annually.
49-year old George Asamoah Amankwah of Europa farms in the Western region Friday emerged as the National Best Farmer for 2014.
Amankwah has a 129-acre maize farm, 6,800-acre plantation, 20-acre pepper and okra farm, 6000-acre plantain farm, a 20-acre oil farm, 147 cattle and three fish ponds in which he farms catfish and tilapia.
He has 22 staff and 50 casual workers. In his acceptance speech, Amankwah expressed his appreciation for the honour bestowed on him.
