By William N-lanjerborr Jalulah
The Overall Best Farmer award of the 29th Farmers’ Day celebration 2013 in the Upper East Region went to Mr. Daniel Duut from the Garu-Tempane District, while Mr. Yusif Asurikabiya from the Gowrie Abaabisi community in the Bongo District was adjudged the Overall District Best Farmer.
For his prize, Mr. Duut took home one grinding mill, one water pump, one knapsack sprayer, one set of wellington boots, a cutlass, two bags of fertiliser and a half piece of cloth, while Mr. Asuribkabiya received a donkey plough, a live donkey fixed to a cart, two pieces of cloth, a radio set, three bags of fertiliser, two cutlasses, a pair of wellington boots and a certificate as a prize package.
At Bongo, where the regional event was held, a total of 22 farmers received regional awards, while 16 received district awards.
The Upper East Regional Minister, Alhaji Limuna Mohammed-Muniru, stated that the region had had its fair share of the government’s programmes and projects geared at improving the region’s food security.
He cited the Block Farm Programme as critical among the interventions, under which 3,054 unemployed youth benefited, as they were supported with subsidised fertilisers, herbicides and seeds to cultivate 2,265 hectares of maize, rice and soya beans in 2013 alone.
He noted that post-harvest losses constitute about 30 per cent or more of harvested farm produce. He added that the huge percentage loss of produce could be attributed to losses in quantity, quality or nutritional value, wastage and low pricing as a result of glut.
Consequently, farmers are unable to recoup their investments and unable to feed their families, thus making farming unattractive to, especially, the youth.
The Regional Minister said to help reduce these losses, the government had over the past five years supplied the Upper East Region with 26 combine harvesters for sale at subsidised prices on a hire purchase deal to farmer groups, while early yielding varieties of maize, rice and other crops had been distributed to farmers to enable them plant and harvest early before bushfires set in.
Also, the government had supported the Northern Star Tomato factory with funds to rehabilitate its machines and ready itself to purchase tomato from farmers in the Tono and Vea irrigation sites, as well as those at Pwalugu and other areas.
According Alhaji Limuna, over 50 aluminum silos had been brought into the country through the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), and the cost subsidised for sale to peasant farmers to store their produce after harvest.
He tasked MoFA staff to assess the impact of this initiative for its possible scaling up.
The government, through the MoFA, had built the capacity of extension staff and given them over 100 motorbikes to enable them reach far-off farming communities to educate farmers on best farming practices, new agro-technologies and proper post-harvest methods.
The Bongo District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr. Ayamdor Alexis Adugdaa, said the District Agriculture Development Unit had linked about 12 farmer-based organisations to the Bongo Rural Bank, which have accessed loans to increase their yields, and appealed to them repay the loans quickly, in order for their colleagues to also benefit.
He disclosed that 4,534 bags of fertiliser were sold to the district’s farmers under the Fertiliser Subsidy scheme.
Mr. Adugdaa said in 2012, the Bongo District sponsored 376 farmers under the Block Farm Programme to crop a total of 376 acres of maize, but due to low loan recovery, the assembly in 2013, sponsored only 148 farmers to crop 162 acres of maize under the same programme. Meanwhile, through the assembly’s collaboration with the Northern Rural Growth Programme and the Ghana Social Opportunities Programme (GSOP), a number of roads and dams in the district have been rehabilitated to aid farming and transportation of farm produce to market centres.
The DCE said under the Climate Change Component of the GSOP, the assembly invested lots of funds, culminating in the cultivation of 21 acres of mango plantation in seven communities, and commended non-governmental organisations, including World Vision, ACDEP, World Food Programme, Savannah Agricultural Research Institute among others, for their interventions in the district over the years.
The Upper East Regional Director of the MoFA, Mr. Cletus Achab, in a statement, observed that the smuggling of subsidised fertiliser reduced drastically in 2013, as compared to 2012, due to stringent measures adopted by the Ministry and other stakeholders such as the Ghana Police Service.