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Women have rubbed shoulders with men at Friday’s Farmer’s Day celebration at Ketu North Municipality, winning the Best Overall Municipal Farmer and Best Elder Farmer awards.
The awards, won by 12 people, and one group saw women win another four awards for Best Youth Farmer, Best Person Living with a Disability, Best Farmer and Best Agroprocessor, leaving six awards for their male counterparts as well.
Louise Agbeve, a 55-year-old exporter of gari and other agricultural products, received a certificate, a tricycle, two pairs of Wellington boots, a spray machine, five cutlasses, a full wax piece and a flower pot as a prize. for emerging as the best overall in the Municipality.
He cultivated 80 acres of corn and 25 acres of cassava, 25 acres of pineapple, one acre each of pepper and okra, had 50 goats, 15 sheep, and 40 birds, as well as having an oil palm mill, cassava graters, stoves of gari processing. with a staff of 21 permanent employees and 86 temporary employees, among others.
The wife of Alphonse Kokouvi Masseme, a former Minister of the Interior of Togo under the Eyadema regime, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said that her award was the result of dedication and perseverance and advised young people to develop an interest in the self-fulfilling and rewarding company. .
“Agriculture is a sector for which you do not receive financial aid, but you can ask family and friends for support. Other than that, you must be passionate, dedicated to what you do because there will be times when you will be too tired to work.
Interestingly, you will be the first to benefit from your fatigue. I have traveled abroad with my husband, but when I entered Ahiayiborkope, I knew I would be better off here. I can grow, process gari, etc. and no one around me will go hungry. We need young people to follow in our footsteps to sustain agriculture and feed our future generations ”.
Eighty-year-old Mama Agbowada, the oldest farmer with a seven-acre farm of corn, cassava, five, potatoes, two, and 11 local birds, said her love of farming kept her in the profession at her age.
She prayed to God for strength so that she could expand her company and emerge as the ultimate winner in the near future.
The Municipal Director of Agriculture, Franklin Kwaku Agbove, congratulated all the farmers, especially the awardees, saying they were worth honoring each year for their immense contribution to the economic well-being of the municipality and the nation.
He said the Municipality’s goal in 2019 was to help the country stop importing rice by 2022, as a major rice-producing community in the region suffered a problem this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which prevented importation. of the necessary fertilizers.
Mr. Agbove again cited the streak of drought experienced between May and August that resulted in the burning of rice fields and loss of direct investments from farmers and called for investors to develop fertilizer plants within the municipality as they develop more irrigation systems to serve rice farmers in the valley bottoms.
Ketu North Ketu New Patriotic Party parliamentary candidate Kofi Dzamesi said residents and Ghanaians should keep the current government in power to improve policies and programs for farmers.
