Abu Nabong, 35, is Upper West Regional best farmer

Mr Abu Nabong, a 35-year old maize farmer from Mwanduanu in the Sissala East District has emerged as the 2012 Regional Best Farmer for the Upper West Region.

Mr Nabong took away a corn mill, a spraying and sewing machines, 12 machetes, a radio cassette recorder, one pair of Wellington boots and a certificate as his prize.

In all 22 farmers including three women were honored at a ceremony in Wechiau in the Wa West District of the Upper West Region.

Mr Nabong has 350 acres of maize, 110 acres of groundnuts, five acres of yam, 50 acres of rice, two acres each of cashew, bambara beans and groundnuts and an acre of tomato.

He also has 1,500 cattle, 80 sheep, 50 goats, 45 local fowls, 15 ducks, 150 pigeons and a donkey.

The 2012 Regional Best Farmer is also a proud owner of three tractors, animal drawn ridges and block cart, four shellers and one grinding mill.

Mr Nabong has also built a mosque for the community, offered free tractor services to needy people in the community and help to transport sick people to Tumu or Wa for medical care.

Alhaji Amidu Sulemana, Upper West Regional Minister, thanked all farmers in the region for their commitment and dedication to food production in the country.

He said the theme for the occasion: “Grow More Food – Strengthening Farmer-Based Organisations (FBOs), for Market Place Bargaining Power” was appropriate because it was linked to the Medium-Term Agricultural Sector Investment Plan (METASIP) of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.

He said the Plan which has a lifespan of five years was geared at empowering the farmer to bargain for fair prices for their produce and equipping them with the requisite knowledge and practices to manage their farms in view of the dwindling number of Agricultural officers.

Alhaji Sulemana urged framers in the region to turn their attention to some of the non-traditional export crops including fruit-tree crops such as mango, cashew, shea as well as industrial crops such as cotton and moringa.

He said government since 2008 had introduced subsidies in prices of farm inputs such as fertilizers farm machinery and improved seeds adding that this had gone a long way to mitigate the sufferings of farmers while boosting the yields of the various crops.

The Regional Minister said a total of 13,345.9 metric tonnes of fertilizer (266,918 bags) were distributed in the region for the 2012 cropping season.

Alhaji Sulemana expressed concern that the fertilizer was being smuggled out of the region into neighbouring Burkina Faso, thereby, denying some farmers especially those in the Sissala area access to fertilizer.