Watch as President-elect Mahama spends week harvesting crops on his farm

President-elect John Dramani Mahama spent the last weekend using a combine harvester to harvest crops on his private farm in the Savannah Region.

The poultry industry's crops include yellow maise and soya beans.

A video clip showing the President-elect busy operating the combine harvester on his farm was made available to the Ghana News Agency by his Office.

"It has been a busy weekend for me all over the Savannah area. Farmers are busy because the fires have started and if you don't get your crops in quickly the bushfires will burn them. So, we're harvesting soya bean and maise on this farm," he stated

He said they supplied their maise and soya beans directly to Asutuare Farms in the Eastern Region for poultry.

He noted that he was also into livestock farming, saying, "We started with the goats and the small ruminants, and we started with 300 of them. Right now, they've increased to almost 500. We have another 200 animals, and we started just a few months ago, and so it's looking positive".

The incoming president said they were going to add sheep and then eventually cattle.

He reiterated that he was into both livestock and crop production.

He said one of the major problems they had as farmers this year, especially with the crops, was the droughts that occurred, stating that "after we planted, the rain came to a stop."

He said it stopped raining, and so after the germination of the crops, they had a problem with the maise and the soya beans being able to take root. 

"Luckily, we have some irrigation equipment here on the farm. We have three sets of irrigation equipment, so we rolled them out, and that is what has saved part of the crop, but we lost about 40 percent of the crop," he said.

"We were able to save only about 60 per cent. We would have had more this year, but unfortunately, the droughts happened, so what we're looking to do is to go totally under irrigation.

"We have a small river over there, and we've drilled five boreholes, which are very productive, and so next year, we're going to use a pivot system so that we can have enough water for irrigation, and it will allow us to do two crops instead of one crop a year."

The President-elect said they had different kinds of equipment on the farm and that they were working well but after sales service was a problem.

"A lot of the dealers sell you the equipment, but once you buy the equipment, sometimes you can't get the parts, spare parts, and so what we need to do is to standardise the equipment and make sure that anybody who's selling agricultural machinery in Ghana is able to offer the farmers after sales service because right now it's the harvest time," he said.

He said one of their combined harvesters was down, and they don't have the spare parts in the country hence they had to order them from outside. 

"If we say we're waiting for them to bring the parts from my side by the time the parts come, bushfire would have finished this crop," he said.

"Happily, one of our neighbours has a well-combined harvester , and that is what you saw me riding. We have hired it, from him to come and help us , you know, to be able to harvest all the crops before the fires come in."

Mahama said that was why he believed that the nation must have farmer service centres, where they have specialised agencies repairing and operating the machinery.

This, he said, would then let the farmer focus on his farming while someone else provided him with the service of the machines so that it doesn't have to be his headache.

"Today my headache is about this combined harvester; how to get a part. It should have been somebody's headache, and mine should just be to procure my seeds, get my fertilisers and be able to grow my crops and so it's a good experience, but farming is my life; I love it, and I'm sure if I didn't go into politics I'll be a full-time farmer," he said.

"In any case, when I retire, you know, after this stint, of course, I'm going to go into full-time farming. If you want to see me, you'll have to come here onto the farm."