25 farmers honoured on farmer's day

Twifo Somnyamekodur (C/R), Dec. 6, GNA - Twenty-five farmers from Twifu Hemang Lower Denkyira district were on Friday honoured at the national farmers and fishers day celebrations, at Twifu Somnyamekodur in the Central Region.

Prizes ranging from television sets, spraying machines, wax prints, roofing sheets, cutlasses, bicycles, radio sets and Wellington boots were presented to the award winners.

Mr Essah K. Gyarbeng, a sixty- five year old farmer from Somnyamekodur was declared the best district farmer.

Mr Gyarbeng, who has a 150 acres palm oil farm, 3 acres plantain farm, two acres of maize and a thousand birds, took home a bicycle, radio set, wax prints, cutlasses and quantity of soap as his prize. In a an address, Mr Joseph Foster Andoh, District Chief Executive (DCE) for Twifo Hemang Lower Denkyira, congratulated the award winners and farmers who participated in the celebrations and advised them to work harder than before to enable them to win laurels next year. Mr Andoh expressed his concern over the inability of some farmers to repay loans granted them by some banks to improve their farms. He appealed to the beneficiaries to repay their loans to enable their colleagues to enjoy the facility.

The DCE appealed to the farmers in the district to adopt modern farming methods to improve their yields. On the government's youth agricultural programme, he advised the youth to embrace the programme to improve their living standards. Mr Emmanuel Acquaye, District Director of Agriculture, said for most families in farming, their income comes only after harvest and many do not have access to credit savings or remittances to finance the cost of inputs such as seed and fertiliser.

He suggested that since government cannot do it alone, the private sector and NGO's working in the districts, should pre-finance farmers, who are credit worthy.