The 36^th Farmers Day Celebration of the Gomoa East District was held at Gomoa Buduburam in the central region to celebrate the achievements of gallant farmers and fishers in the district as well as assure them of governments support and solidarity with them.

The District Chief Executive for Gomoa East, Hon. Solomon Darko Quarm, said, the government through the Ministry of Food and Agriculture has taken steps to address food security challenges since 2017 through Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) campaign.

Through the campaign he added, the growth pattern in production has been refreshing owning to the subsidy that the government absorbed; fertilizers, seed maize, rice seed, vegetable seeds and others were subsidized and sold to farmers at affordable prices. This initiative has improved food production in the district with a total of 3,630 farmers benefiting from it.

The DCE also said, a total of 150 hectares of rice farm cultivated by 250 farmers yielded a total of 1000 tons of paddy rice, that of maize stood at 1500 tons of grains from 200 hectares of land. Vegetables and other crops cultivated also saw an increase in yield which was unprecedented in the history of the district.

The district Director of Agriculture, Mrs. Hasnau Apam Nuhu, disclosed the effect COVID-19 has created. She also used the platform to create a new sense of awareness about building strong food system that ensures resilience and over dependance on food import. Adding at the inception of the pandemic, the panic that disrupted economic activities tested Ghana’s resilience and food security vulnerability and the country’s ability to respond to the challenges has vindicated the current priority placed on agriculture.

She mentioned some extension technologies disseminated to farmers in all the 52 agricultural communities which includes farmer sensitization, education, training and demonstrations, besides this, a group of famers at Buduatta and Adawukwaa were also trained on value addition to their produce by transforming the produce from its raw state to a more business oriented products.

The overall best District farmer, was Ishak Hakeem, a 22-year-old student from Gomoa Ojobi who took for his prize a tricycle, Wellington boot, knap sack sprayer, 3 cutlasses, a shovel and others. Other award winners received prizes such as Wellington boot, knap sack sprayers, chest freezer, cloth etc.

The celebration was under the theme “Ensuring Agric business Development under COVID-19: opportunities And Challenges”