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A new Farmers Day format at long last?

A new Farmers Day format at long last?

One of the most exciting statements I have heard in recent times was the assurance by Senior Minister Yaw Osafo-Maafo that this year’s Farmers Day will be a new-look one.

I have been campaigning for a long time for both the National Farmers Day (NFD) format and prizes to be dramatically repackaged.

As reported by the Daily Graphic, at the launch on August 16 of the 2017 Farmers Day, Mr Osafo-Maafo stated that this year’s National Farmers Day “was being retooled and remodelled … we are going to do something extraordinary ….”

The 2017 NFD, scheduled for December 1, is themed ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’. Today President Nana Akufo-Addo is launching his government’s flagship policy, ‘One District, One Factory’, in the Central Region. Surely the scheme presents agro-business openings, one more reason why the NFD programme needs to be transformed to ensure an expanded agricultural workforce.    

The following is an abridgement of some of the articles published in this column in the past three years on the urgent need to redesign the NFD.

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The 2014 article was under the headline Rewarding best farmers: Isn’t it time for a review? (Issue of December 12, 2014):

I can’t help feeling once again that it is time to have a radical review of the format of the NFD celebration, especially the awards.  

The Farmers Day observance has been going on for 30 years, and therefore it’s not surprising if it needs a new breath of life.

The main prizes have improved to magnificent levels since the early days, but I think that the present award system could be vastly improved. It seems to favour the big time farmers more than small and peasant farmers.

Also, I think the idea of holding a nationwide, simultaneous observance needs to be replaced with a staggered one: district, then regional and finally national.  

The grand finale could still take place on the first Friday of December and would still be a national holiday.

Furthermore, a three-tiered observance would provide an opportunity to give recognition to many more award winners in the media. Under the present system, regrettably, district and regional winners tend to be overshadowed by the national prize-winners; many amazing stories are left untold.

Do the big farmers really need such incentives from the government? My argument is that the scale of their farming activities is already a pointer that farming for them is a business they have chosen and they’re already doing well in it.

The peasant farmers, who in their own way play equally important roles but have no way of being able to build a house, have to be content with sometimes ridiculous, insulting prizes.

It is known that in Africa the small farmers have as important a role in the economy as the big ones.

Rewarding deserving peasant farmers with houses, even modest ones, could also serve as the much-needed incentive to encourage more school leavers to go into farming. In fact, these days the cynical comment one hears in farming communities is that if one is poor one can’t succeed even in farming.

Other factors for consideration include the growing concern about lack of interest of the youth in cocoa farming, which is essential to the national economy, as well as the urgent calls for adding value to agricultural produce.

Why not reward the Most Promising Young Cocoa Farmer and the Most Enterprising Young Agro-Processing Farmer with a house, or a car, to attract other youth?

Perhaps what the government needs to do is to honour the National Best Farmer in another way. Why not, for example, appointment to the Council of State for a year, until the selection of the next winner?

 

2015 article – ‘Of those who feed the nation but who are ‘the most hungry’ (April 17, 2015):

I often wonder who will champion the cause of small farmers as there is no likelihood of any children of the people in authority finding themselves among the ranks of such farmers. If that possibility existed, perhaps that would make them act pragmatically to improve the farmers’ situation.

And after they have toiled to grow the food, overcoming all sorts of hazards, bringing the produce home presents another huge problem because of bad roads, high transport fares and, or, lack of transport.

Why can’t the district assemblies organise a transport system to take farmers to their farms in the morning and transport them and their produce home in the evenings – for a moderate fare?

What is the essence of celebrating the nation’s farmers if it’s not to serve as encouragement and attract new people, if it’s just to preach to the converted?

When are we going to discard the ‘business-as-usual’ attitude and introduce creative ways to give encouragement to that crucial group, the small farmers, who are so deserving of the nation’s appreciation and realistic rewards? 

 

2016 article – What has happened to Farmers Day? (October 14, 2016):

Are the annual observances, making significant impact on tackling two critical problems: post-harvest losses and the ageing farmer population? 

How serious is the Government about solving these problems?

The FAO is urging countries to invest more in rural development, as well as smallholder farmers.  

However, the Ministry continues to reward the big-time commercial farmers with magnificent prizes, while the ‘small-time’ but equally dedicated farmers who really need a house or tractor or car as a reward for their labour, have to be satisfied with paltry prizes.

That being the case, how many young people will feel like going into farming? How many poor rural folk will convince their children not to head for the bright lights of urban Ghana, but stay in the village and be content with the backbreaking cutlass and hoe life?  

If we want to encourage the youth to go into farming, surely it is time to make drastic changes to the Farmers Day reward system! The main prizes should go to deserving young farmers to attract other youth.

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My hope is that come Friday, December 1, the promised “retooled” Farmers Day, notably the main prizes, will draw ecstatic applause from the ranks of small-time farmers and will be the magnet to attract the youth into farming.

 

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