Farmers advised to form co-operatives

Farmers have been advised to form co-operatives to enable them benefit from facilities provided by the government towards agricultural development.

Nana Kwaku Siaw, Chairman of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly Best Farmers Award Winners Association, who gave the advice, also said forming such groups would help farmers to contract loans from financial institutions.He was speaking to the Ghana News Agency at Anwomaso in Kumasi on Wednesday, on the contribution best farmer award winners could make to enhance productivity and to encourage the youth to go into farming.

Nana Siaw observed that though there were many credit and support packages for farmers, most of them were unable to avail themselves to opportunity to expand their farms because they were not organised into groups.He also identified poor roads, post-harvest losses and the lack of reliable markets for farm produce as some of the problems facing agriculture and appealed to government to take positive steps to reverse the trend.

Nana Siaw entreated all best farmer award winners in the Kumasi metropolis to join the association to enable them harness their skills to the benefit of the youth.