Agric Minister launches 38th National Farmers Day awards

This year’s National Farmers Day awards, the 38th edition, has been launched by the Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto in Accra. The event will be held at Koforidua in the Eastern region from November 28 to December 2nd with emphasis on value addition of agricultural raw materials.

Farmers Day awards are held annually in Ghana. This event would be climaxed with the Head of State award for the national best farmer, among a tall list of other awards. The theme of the 38th edition of the event is ” development through value addition to agricultural produce”. The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research CSIR was cited as a pillar in that effort.

The Food and Agriculture Minister Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto said, Planting for Food and Jobs and other interventions in the agricultural sector were recognized as success stories at the recent African Green Revolution Forum, AGRF, in Rwanda.

Whilst the minister bemoans the dramatic fluctuations in food prices in the country, which he hoped could stabilize soon, he said government would shift focus to value addition, to stimulate research, food preservation, entrepreneurship and exports.

Koforidua which hosts the farmer’s day represents a region coming into the event with the innovative commodities satellites markets fair. That would be exhibited to the world on farmer’s day.