The Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG), with its collaborator, Akuafo Nketewa Company Limited, have met to discuss a pre-season award ceremony to recognize farmers contribution to agriculture in the Upper East region.
The day, slated for March 27 and 28 in the Navrongo Municipality of the Upper East Region, is also expected to award deserving sorghum farmers and aggregators.
It is on the theme: ‘The role of the small holder farmer in addressing food and climate change challenges in Ghana.’
The programme is the brainchild of the PFAG and Akuafo Nketewa Company Ltd, aimed to honour farmers and agribusiness owners for the immense role they play in agriculture development in the country.
Dr Charles Nyaaba, former National President, PFAG, and now the Board Chair of Akuafo Nketewa Company Ltd, who spoke to the media on the sidelines of the meeting, said it was to whip up and sustain interest of the youth in farming.
Dr Nyaaba, in an earlier presentation, said some major innovations would be launched
on the awards day, comprising a farmers pension scheme and a cooperative and credit union to help farmers and agribussinesses to save and rely on those savings in times of need.
He said access to financial services was a challenge and the new schemes would help the farmers, in urgent need, to withdraw their savings to cushion them.
‘One of the things we have observed is that farmers toil to till the land to produce food to feed the nation but during old age how they fund their medical expenses is a problem,’ Dr Nyaaba said.
The farmers, while still producing, could put some savings aside for future use.
As part of government’s plans to roll out the phase two of the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJs), the leadership of the farmers educated members on the new programme and outlined the objectives of the Phase Two.
This includes to promote agriculture development, food security, increased productivity and job creation through adoption of holistic value chain approach.
Dr Nyaaba encouraged members to share t
he information with other farmers and encourage them to actively get involved in the registration process and participate in it.
He said the second phase promised better intervention including mechanisation services , extension and provision of inputs more than the first phase.
Some of the members shared some of the challenges experienced under the Phase One, which included low farmer- extension-officer ratio, and hoped the new phase would be able to address those problems.
Source: Ghana News Agency