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AGRICULTURE

Nkoranza South Municipality honours 65 farmers

The Nkoranza South Municipal Assembly on Friday awarded 65 farmers with various prizes for their contribution towards food production and growth of agriculture in the municipality and the nation at large.

Date Created : 12/6/2013 12:00:00 AM : Story Author :

The farmers were honoured as part of the 29th National Farmers™ Day celebration on the theme: Reducing Post-Harvest Losses for Sustainable Food Security and Nutrition.

Mr Agura Aligaru, 54 at Salamkrom in the Municipality emerged the over-all best farmer in 2013 for cultivating 130-acres of maize, six acres of cassava, six acres of cow-pea, 11 acres of watermelon, three acres of groundnut and six acres of yam and six acres of cashew.

In addition Mr Aligaru owns 25 cattle, 55 sheep, 70 goats, 110 local fowls, 200 guinea-fowls and 300 doves.

For his prize, he received a motor-bike, cutlasses, bars of key soap, Wellington boot, a bag of NPK-Fertiliser, knapsack spraying machine and four litres of weedicide.

Reverend Andrew Kwadwo Boateng, 67-year-old of Seventh-Day Adventist Church at Akumsa-Domase, a town at the outskirt of Nkoranza was adjudged the second best farmer in the municipality.

Rev Boateng has five acres of cashew, 10 acres of mango, five acres of citrus, five acres of plantain, three acres of yam, two acres of cassava and 12 acres of maize farms as well as 20 sheep, 20 goats, 20 turkeys and 50 local fowls.

He was given a double-deck fridge, cutlasses, bars of key soap, a Wellington boot, a bag of NPK Fertiliser, a knapsack spraying machine and four litres of weedicide.

Ms Stella Amoatemaa, Municipal Chief Executive said the country lose more than GHÂ¢ 700,000 annually through post-harvest losses because of bad management practices.

She identified late harvesting of crops, in-appropriate storage facilities, keeping of harvested produce in the field for long periods and inappropriate means of carting farm produce as some of the causes of post-harvest losses.

Ms Amoatemaa said eliminating the losses would go a long way to affect the nation’s desire to achieve one of the Millennium Development Goals of eradicating extreme hunger and poverty.

She noted that the farming industry could be attractive to the youth if right measures are put in place.

Ms Amoatemaa suggested the need for government to target both small and large scale grain storage and handling operations as well as the introduction of low-cost on-farm technology to grain storage.

Mr McLawrence Ahiadu, Municipal Director of Agriculture said it would be a miscarriage of justice to underrate the importance of farmers and the farming industry because everyone’s healthy living and survival depends on the produce of farmers.

GNA