Bolgatanga to host 2015 National Farmers Day

This year’s National Farmers Day celebration will take place at Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region on December 4, on the theme, “Transform Ghana : Invest in Agriculture”.

Mr Daniel Syme, Upper East Deputy Regional Minister, announced this at the official launch of the 31st edition of National Farmers Day in Bolgatanga on Saturday.

The national farmers’ day event is marked annually on the first Friday of December to honor farmers and fishers throughout the country for their various contributions to national development.

The National event would be preceded by the regional day celebration on November 27 at Zebilla in the Bawku West District.

Mr Syme said government acknowledged the vital role farmers and fisher folks played in the nation’s socio-economic development, especially their unrelenting efforts to feed the growing population, providing raw materials for the industries and contributing to the nation’s foreign exchange earnings.

“The connection between agriculture and development and Ghana’s ability to achieve food and nutrition security goals are inextricably linked”, Mr Syme said.

He noted that this year’s theme was to support government’s policy of promoting and modernizing agriculture through the accelerated industrialization of that sector and value addition policies which were in line with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture’s (MOFA) objective of promoting the consumption of locally grown agricultural produce.

He assured the nation that this year’s National Farmers day celebration would be one of the best of such events and urged all to support the programme.

Present at the ceremony were Mr Gilbert Ampeh, National Deputy Director, MOFA, Mr Philip Osei Nkrumah, National Coordinator, Farmers Day, and Mr Sulemana Yakubu, also of MOFA. Also present were Upper East Regional Directors of MOFA and Heads of Departments.

The Upper East Region first hosted the National Farmers day event in 1991, thus making this year’s event the second celebration in the region so far.