The Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD) Ghana, has urged the government and the stakeholders for farmers’ day celebration to upgrade the award items to gear towards Modernizing Agriculture in Ghana.
This issue was discerned during the dissemination of items to the deserved 35th Farmer’s Day award winners.
A worrying trend of the issue is that most of the award items presented at the local level do not reflect the theme of the celebration thus “Enhancing Small Scale Agriculture towards Agribusiness Development”. How can you enhance small scale agriculture towards agribusiness development whiles awards presented is the same cutlass that leads to more drudgery nature of farming?
Some of the items presented especially at the municipal and district levels do not reflect the vision of the agricultural sector thus to “modernized agriculture culminating in a structurally transformed economy and evident in food security, employment opportunities and reduced poverty”.
An item such as cutlass can be replaced with a simple slasher and other simple mechanized equipment to depict the Modernizing Agriculture in Ghana (MAG) agenda which is the current programme of the agricultural sector.
While YPARD appreciates the effort of the youth in the agriculture sector, there should be a way and manner to raise and sustain the interest of young farmers. YPARD believes that the development of agricultural financing and insurance scheme for all youth award winners countrywide to enhance the scalability and sustainability of these young farm enterprises in the sector is a good way to go.
YPARD takes this opportunity to congratulate all youth farmers and value chain actors that won awards during the 35th Farmer’s Day celebration held on Friday 6th December 2019.
YPARD sends its special congratulations to Ayuba Jibrila from the Ashanti Region who walked away as the national best youth farmer at Ho and Michael Afachaw, a 31-year-old youth farmer of Asuom in the Kwaebibirem Municipality in the Eastern Region who was adjourned the overall best farmer.
The organization encourages all Metropolitan, Municipal and District authorities to upgrade the award items to reflect the objectives of Modernizing Agriculture in Ghana and also motivate the youth in the agricultural value chain.
Source; Kafui Kwesi Agbe, Country Representative, YPARD Ghana.
