Thursday, 4th December, 2025
Hon Seth Osei-Akoto
Atwima Mponua
Thank you, Mr Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to read a Statement on behalf of the farmers of the country and the celebration that is going to take place tomorrow.
Mr Speaker, I rise today to make a Statement on the floor of this honourable House as we reflect on the history, significance and evolution of Ghana’s National Farmers’ Day, a national celebration that recognises the men and women whose hands feed our nation and sustain our economy. National Farmers’ Day was instituted in 1985 by the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) Government to honour our industrial farmers, fishermen and herdsmen. This decision followed a turnaround from a period of severe hardships in our nation, which included the devastating 1983 bushfires and the arrival of one million Ghanaians deported from Nigeria.
During this period, our nation experienced extreme food shortages to the extent that we were forced to go door to door with a cup in hand, begging for food from the goodwill of benevolent countries. It is our farmers and fishermen who saved us from the national crisis. The PNDC Government rightly instituted National Farmers’ Day to say ayekoo to them for their resilience and contribution. The first celebration was held at Osino in the Eastern Region in 1985, with prizes that included two pairs of Wellington boots and cutlasses.
In 1986, these prizes were augmented to include radios, full pieces of cloth and agrochemicals. By 1987, the National Best Farmer Award was formally instituted, with the winner receiving a single carbin pick-up, while other award winners received sewing machines, radios, spraying machines, agrochemicals and cloth, with the Ghana Cocoa Board sponsoring awards for cocoa, coffee and shea nut farmers.
In 1988, the first and second runnersup were introduced alongside the National Best Farmer Award. The winner now received a double cabin pick-up, while the runners-up received corn mills and all items given to singlecommodity award winners. This year also saw the introduction of regional award winners and special awards recognising institutions that have contributed to agricultural development in Ghana.
Mr Speaker, in 1991, His Excellency the late Flt Lt J.J. Rawlings declared the first Friday of December each year as a national holiday to honour our farmers and fishermen. By 1994, the District Best Farmer Awards were instituted, funded by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and local donations. Between 1998 and 2000, the National Best Farmer continued to receive a double cabin pickup.
From 2001, winners were presented with three bedroom households, funded by the Agricultural Development Bank, with the first runner-up receiving a tractor and implements, and the second runner-up receiving a double cabin pickup. Since 2017, the National Best Farmer receives cash prizes to allow flexibility in using the funds to improve agriculture inputs.
Mr Speaker, the selection process for the National Best Farmer is painstaking, rigorous, involving preliminary selections at the district and regional levels. Farmers' activities are closely monitored by extension officers throughout the farming season. A committee composed of experts from the University of Ghana, University of Cape Coast, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, University of Development Studies and research institutions together with extension officers tour farms to assess the candidates. This ensures that the final award decisions are fair, impartial, and merit-based.
Mr Speaker, the celebration highlights several key national values and significance. Firstly, national recognition and appreciation: It reinforces the message that agriculture is central to our survival, stability, and growth. Through the awards now covering more than 16 categories, such as overall best farmer, best female farmer, best youth farmer, and best livestock farmer, the nation affirms its gratitude to those who feed us.
Secondly, platform for innovation and learning: Farmers' Day has grown into a national platform for showcasing agriculture technologies, mechanisation options, improved seeds, climate-smart practices, and value-chain innovations. The AgriFest Ghana Fair, which precedes the day, brings together farmers, investors, researchers, agribusinesses for collaboration and knowledge sharing.
Thirdly, policies signaling: Themes chosen each year serves as indicators of government priorities. The 2023 theme supported the launch of “Planting for Food and Jobs Phase II”, emphasising delivering smart solutions for sustainable food security and resilience.
In 2024, the theme, “Building Climate-Resilient Agriculture for Sustainable Food Security,” highlighted national concerns for climate impacts. The Theme for Ghana's National Farmers' Day, 2025, is “Feed Ghana, Eat Ghana, Secure the Future.”
Fourthly, economic contribution: Agriculture continues to contribute significantly to GDP, employment, and exports. Organisations like Alliance for Green Revolution for Africa (AGRA) and farmer networks continue to commend the resilience of Ghana farmers and advocate for improved financing, technology, and infrastructure.
Mr Speaker, of late, the celebration of Farmers' Day is marked by several important national activities. First, Agriculture Fair and Exhibition. Throughout the week, a National Agriculture Fair is held, featuring exhibitions of machinery, seedlings, agrochemicals, livestock, processed foods, irrigation technologies, and innovations from research institutions.
Second, sponsorship and funding. Official launching of soliciting the sponsorship packages and funding. Third, National Durbar and Awards Ceremony. On Friday, the climax of the celebration features a grand durbar of chiefs, farmers, fisherfolk, dignitaries, and stakeholders; cultural performances and parades showcasing Ghana's agricultural diversity; speeches addressing national agriculture priorities. Lastly, presentations for awards at district, regional, and national levels.
As we commemorate the 41st edition of the national event, we are reminded that agriculture is the backbone of our food security, a pillar of our economic growth, and a source of dignity for millions of Ghanaian households. This moment calls on all of us to support our farmers with better policies, funding and resources, ensuring that Ghana's agriculture continues to thrive and grow.
Mr Speaker, as Ghana celebrates four decades of Farmers' Day, it is important we strengthen the celebration itself to deepen its relevance, transparency, and national pride. I therefore suggest the following measures to improve the celebration activities:
1. Institutionalise a permanent national organising committee: A well-resourced permanent committee will ensure continuity, stronger planning, and better coordination across all regions and districts.
2. Improve transparency of prize structures: Publishing a clear prize structure and award criteria ahead of time will improve fairness, public trust, and sponsorship engagement.
3. Expand corporate sponsorship: formalising a national sponsorship framework will enhance prize equality while reducing financial burden on Government.
4. Strengthen district and regional celebrations: Providing logistical support with standardised guidelines will ensure quality and uniformity at the grassroots where most awards are presented.
5. Enhance public education and media outreach: A month-long public awareness campaign before the celebration will highlight farm achievements and reinforce national respect for the sector.
6. Digitalise the nomination and selection process: A digital system for nominations and documentation will reduce delays, improve accuracy, and enhance fairness.
Mr Speaker, implementing these reforms will elevate National Farmers' Day into a celebration that reflects the true value of our hard-working farmers and fisherfolks, enhances transparency, strengthens national pride, and ensures that this important institution continues to grow in relevance and prestige.
Let us use this occasion to honour the courage, resilience, and innovation of our farmers and fishermen. Let this also serve as a reminder of our duty as a nation and as legislatures to continue supporting agriculture, the very foundation upon which our nation's prosperity rests.
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
Hon Hamza Adam
Kumbungu
Thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to contribute to this very important Statement, a Statement that supports the celebration of our gallant farmers.
We all know that farmers in this country continue to play a vital role in ensuring food security for this country. A lot of the farmers go the extra mile to endure to ensure that we have food on our tables at our various homes. As we celebrate the farmers, I want to emphasise that we have to relook at the way we go about selecting the people that we give this award to. The politicisation of the awardees has become the order of the day. I must mention that almost all the political parties are victims of this.
We really have to ensure that we do a thorough search and get well-deserving people and let them receive this award. The failure to do this is diluting and defeating the purpose for this award. We see farmers seeing this award as just an opportunity to reward political supporters, and we need to look at that. Gender inclusion is an important thing that we also have to look at. A lot of the awardees continue to be the male gender, with very few females receiving this award. It is important that we look at how we will include women, because now we have a lot of women who are into farming, and some of them are doing far better than the men.
Mr Speaker, the smallholder farmers still battle with numerous challenges, despite the fact that the celebration has existed for many years. We still have farmers struggling to get access to basic credit to expand their farms. We also have the issue of insurance continue to be a hindrance to accessing credit to many farmers to support their farms.
I want to recommend seriously that we look at the issue of how we can ensure that farmers will be able to access insurance. Also, limited access to farm machinery. A lot of farmers still struggle to get access to farm machinery, and these are some challenges that we have to look at. I know that the current Government has taken bold initiatives to ensure that we are able to address these challenges. For example, the very popular Feed Ghana Project, is an encompassing project that I know is going to be able to address that. I believe strongly that in the trajectory of resetting the agriculture sector, the Feed Ghana project will be looked at seriously to address that.
Mr Speaker, the Farmer Services Centre is also another innovation that will address the issue of access to farming challenges, that we would have to look at and then support the Government to achieve the same. To conclude, let me take the opportunity to congratulate our Ghanaian farmers for going extra miles to ensure that we have food to eat as a country.
On this very special day, I wish all farmers the best, and I will say ayekoo to all farmers.
Hon Patrick Boakye-Yiadom
Obuasi East
Mr Speaker, thank you. I would want to do it under two minutes.
Tomorrow is National Farmers’ Day; a day we choose to celebrate the hard work and the commitment of farmers. It is even meant to make them happy after putting food on the table of lawyers, doctors, and pastors. But what do we see? Farmers are not happy. They are not happy because large cocoa farms are being destroyed. Large stretches of arable lands are being destroyed by galamsey.
Mr Speaker, if we watch on for this menace to continue, where are we going to get land to make sure that the Feed Ghana project succeeds? How do we achieve a sustainable security if we watch on for our lands to be destroyed? I can tell the House in all honesty that there is no political will to fight galamsey. Let us call a spade a spade.
Mr Speaker, I am afraid that if we do not act decisively in the fight against galamsey, the future of Ghana and Ghanaians are in danger. I am saying this because now dangerous chemicals like cyanide and mercury, which are poisonous are being detected in our food and in our staples. So, if there is any gift on the anniversary day tomorrow that we can give to farmers, it is the Government to act decisively to stop galamsey.
In conclusion, let me use this opportunity to wish our hardworking farmers happy anniversary tomorrow, and to also add my voice to the call for the Government to act decisively to end galamsey from now. Thank you very much.
Hon Sebastian Ngmenenso Sandaare
Daffiama/Bussie/Issa
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to contribute to the Statement made by the Hon Colleague.
I am a product of a farmer. My parents were farmers, and I believe many of us also have that root where our parents or our grandparents farmed, even to take care of us during our various educational journey. We are grateful that tomorrow is dedicated as Farmers' Day, so that we can celebrate and award our gallant farmers.
Mr Speaker, the theme for the day is Feed Ghana, Eat Ghana, and Secure the Future. The essence of this is to ensure that there is food security, national selfsufficiency, and long-term stability of the agriculture sector. If we take a constituency like mine, about 80 per cent of the people are farmers. They are excited that this Government is taking a lot of steps to ensure that farmers now have what they need for their farming services, farm centres, fertiliser and farming equipment.
My district is one of those that would benefit from the Farmer’s Service Centre. This would trickle to almost every district. So, farmers are happy under this Government, we can assure you. It is for all of us to support the Feed Ghana Programme (FDP). This is not the time for partisanship— Let us come together as a country, because almost all of us are farmers, so let us support the Government agenda; let us support the Feed Ghana Programme, and let us support the Nkokᴐ Nketenkete Programme.
Mr Speaker, in conclusion, I celebrate all the gallant farmers of this country, especially the farmers in Daffiama/Bussie/Issa Constituency. I wish them well, and together, Ghana would become better, where we would have food sufficiency and no child would go hungry in this country.
Hon Kingsley Agyemang
Abuakwa South
Thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to contribute to this Statement.
Farmers’ Day celebration— hearing from what my Colleagues said, the history and the trajectory is very clear. It looks to me that every year, slogans are celebrated as against the individuals who are involved in the critical value chain.
Mr Speaker, whether we like it or not, the concept of soil to stomach would go beyond every regime, because any activity that is done to the soil, ends up in the stomach, regardless of whoever is taking the food. Over the years, we pretend to be celebrating farmers, and farmers also pretend to be enjoying whatever we say to them. An aspect that I want to contribute to is agricultural financing. Our people are desirous to farm, but access to capital is not sustainable. We established the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) with the overarching objective to assist farming. They lend to farmers at commercial rates. I am a farmer.
Last year, I won the municipal best farmer award, and what we go through as farmers, in terms of capital, is grievous. Today, we are celebrating: “Eat Ghana, Grow Ghana, Secure the Future”. What are we securing? It is as if God is going to create new lands for us. Lately, access to land and sustainability of land have been challenging. That is why I am associating with what my Colleague said. I come from a galamsey area, just like him. Our lands are depleting. Farmlands are yielding to galamsey activities. So, what are we securing? There is no future because no new lands are going to be created. Mr Speaker, when I went to Kyebi, there was no water. The Nephelometric Turbidity Unit (NTU) level of River Birem is about 5,000 to 8,000. What are we watering our farmlands with? Cyanide or mercury? Is that the kind of future we want to secure? I think the answer is obvious.
So, I do not see the theme in line with the reality of what is happening today. Galamsey activities have heightened. Access to land, access to capital, and bridging the gap are what we expect our farmers to enjoy. How do we bridge the gap? It is through access to healthcare for the Ghanaian farmer, education, and infrastructure. Cocoa roads have been cancelled. Access to food —how are we going to secure all these?
So, Mr Speaker, I wonder what we are really celebrating. The Ghanaian farmer deserves better. The Ghanaian farmer needs to be protected. We cannot have a future in this country if the Ghanaian farmer is not well protected.
Thank you very much.
Hon Sampson Ahi
Bodi
Thank you so much for the opportunity.
Mr Speaker, tomorrow is a special day for all farmers in this country, including myself. Let me take this opportunity to congratulate all farmers for their work to put food on our tables. Mr Speaker, farmers are happy as we speak, particularly cocoa farmers are very excited because before the 2024 Elections, President Mahama promised cocoa farmers to pay 70 per cent of Freeon-Board (FOB) to cocoa farmers. President Mahama has redeemed that promise to pay 70 per cent to cocoa farmers.
Mr Speaker, before we exited power in 2016, under President Mahama, we were distributing free cocoa fertilisers to cocoa farmers. Our Colleagues opposite came into Government, those fertilisers on which it was written that they are not to be sold —
Thank you, Mr Speaker. I am only speaking to facts. And the fact is that under the previous regime, they were selling cocoa fertilisers, but free fertiliser has been reintroduced under the current Government. This is a fact that everybody must know. If they are not aware, we have started the distribution of free fertiliser to cocoa farmers.
Mr Speaker, this is not politics. This is factual. This is what is on the ground. Mr Speaker, before the introduction of free education, we used to have the COCOBOD scholarship to cocoa farmers who went to secondary schools. But with the introduction of free education, that scholarship was suspended. However, the current President, H.E John Mahama, from the next academic year, is going to reintroduce the cocoa scholarship to cocoa farmers at the tertiary level. Are they not happy that when their children get to university level, they are going to benefit from a scholarship if their parents are cocoa farmers? Are they not happy? Is it not good news?
So, Mr Speaker, farmers are happy under the current President, H.E John Dramani Mahama. There is a particular problem with farming in this country. After production, farmers have to struggle to sell their produce. That is why President Mahama is looking at marketing facilities to support farmers. That is why the president recently gave GH₵100 million to the National Food Buffer Stock Company to buy foodstuffs for self-keep. Another 200 have been added so that farmers, after production, their produce will be bought. Are you not happy?
Mr Speaker, I have spoken for just two minutes. Then, Mr Speaker, let me end at ten minutes, with your leave, give me an additional three minutes. Thank you, Mr Speaker. If you look at the theme, “Eat Ghana, Grow Ghana”, when we attend meetings, and conferences, we are served with perfumed rice, which is not produced in Ghana. Let us advise ourselves that, henceforth, we will encourage restaurants to serve locally made rice.
Mr Speaker, let me thank you for the opportunity, but you allowed me to speak for only four minutes. Thank you very much.
Hon Patricia Appiagyei
Asokwa
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
Before I make my contribution, I would like to appeal to our Hon Member from Sekondi that today, we are here for serious Business and we are going to ensure that we close early. So, the shouting across the aisle is not something we should encourage today.
Mr Speaker, I need your guidance on that one. Mr Speaker, tomorrow is Farmers’ Day and it is such an auspicious day that Ghana must celebrate with all the seriousness that it requires. You would bear with me that this celebration of our farmers and our fisherfolks has been introduced to ensure that our farmers and our fisherfolks who serve us food on a daily basis are well acknowledged and honoured. It is very important that on a day like this, we look at all the aspects of the celebration. The first one is the award of prizes to the best farmers.
The second one is to also ensure that we showcase what has been done and innovation. The theme that has been adopted for this particular celebration is apt and it is very important that we pay attention to that and not engage in propaganda on the theme. What is important at this point in time, considering the current state in which we are in, our water situation, our galamsey situation, is that we adopt the best of policies to ensure that our food basket is always full and people will not go hungry in the country. So, what is important today for us to take home? I know Government has come with a number of initiatives that it wants to adopt to ensure that people have some jobs to do, but let us look at it from a very holistic point of view. I am looking at innovation.
Mr Speaker, in my Constituency, for instance, you will be surprised to note that if you take the whole of Ashanti Region, we provide the highest vegetables. And you will begin to think that this is a peri-urban constituency, why are they producing that much? Because we are creative and innovative, using tires, and other forms of farming technologies to ensure that food is served at all times. So, on a day like this, I would like for us to strictly think through what we are doing as a nation. If we get every household to at least produce something, if not vegetables, you can produce foodstuffs using innovative farming ways. It will help us as a nation.
I remember some time back when I was in school, the late Ignatius Kutu Acheampong who was the former Head of State, introduced the ‘Operation Feed Yourself’ system. Under the circumstances in which we live now, it is important that every family begins to look at a way of producing something for its family members so that food will be in abundance and everybody can eat. I want to conclude by celebrating especially those who are creating and innovating the farming system to ensure that we spend little on food by producing food ourselves in our house. I would like to salute all Asokwa farmers and all farmers in Ghana and celebrate them to the fullest to encourage them and give them the right resources to produce abundantly.
With these few words, I thank you for the opportunity.
Hon Ayariga Mahama
Bawku Central
Mr Speaker, on an occasion like this, all of us in this Chamber and Ghanaians must recognise and pay tribute to the effort of our farmers.
Indeed, the National Farmers’ Day was instituted to encourage people to go into farming and to recognise the effort of all those who went into farming and to appreciate the fact that it is through them that we can create the food security that this country needs.
Mr Speaker, I do not know if the institution of a National Farmers’ Day is achieving its real objectives. Since childhood, every year, I have heard of a National Farmers' Day. But as we speak, our food import still stands at over US$3.5 billion.
Indeed, some people put our food imports at the range of US$4 to US$4.5 billion a year. It means that every year Ghana imports food to the tune of US$3.5 to US$4.5 billion. It means that every year, we carry US$3.5 or US$4.5 billion roaming around the world, looking for food to buy, to bring into the country. That is the reality. Why would a country like Ghana, with all the arable land from here to Tumu, to Bawku and from the east to west—Why would a country like Ghana, with the biggest man-made lake lying in its centre, with all the water that is stored in the lake, be carrying US$3.5 billion every year roaming around the world to buy food and ship and come and eat as a country? Why? We talk about unemployment, food inflation and the exchange rate. If we import US$3.5 billion every year, it means that in every year, we are looking for US$3.5 billion to go out there and buy food and bring it into the country. We are exporting jobs—
As a country, why can we not after all these decades, be at least, self-sufficient in food production? Why? One, it is no longer tenable as a people for us to assume that peasant farming can produce the quantum of food that we need as a country to feed ourselves. The countries that are producing food from which we are importing from are not engaged in peasant farming. They are engaged in large-scale commercial farming. Because, that has become the technological reality.
People say the young people should go into farming. With what? They watch on television and see on social media how Ukrainians, Europeans and Americans are farming. They are now farming large acreages of land. Lands that have been engineered for agriculture. Lands that have been irrigated; they are using machinery. Unless we transition from peasant farming of one to two acres, to large commercial farming of thousands of acreages of engineered and irrigated lands using high-tech equipment, I can assure us that we will remain importers of food in this country. Unless that transition takes place—
I just heard my Colleague, the Deputy Minister, urge us to eat made-in-Ghana rice and that we should not eat perfumed rice. Why should we not eat perfumed rice? What is so sophisticated about processing our rice to also become perfumed rice? If the taste of Ghanaians is perfumed rice, why should we not process our rice to also become perfumed rice? It is a processing issue. So let us do that. Mr Speaker, while, I commend our farmers for their efforts so far—Because we are importing close to US$4 billion, we do not even know exactly how much in terms of billions that we are consuming. So, we cannot even measure the effort of our local farmers, which is then supported with the US$4 billion imported amount. We commend them highly for their efforts so far, but Government policy must shift and start focusing on largescale commercial farming.
Government policy must shift and start focusing on irrigation and mechanisation. We must understand that farming is an engineering exercise. If we are constructing roads, we must also construct farmlands. Because we cannot expect the graduates of Senior High School today, to pick cutlasses and pick axes to go and clear land using manpower so that they can farm. Just as we must engineer our roads, we must also engineer our farms.
Mr Speaker, the Members of Parliament who are members of the Northern Caucus took a conscious decision that we must transform the northern half of this country into the food basket of the country. We took all Regional Ministers for the five regions in the northern part of the country, to South Africa for 10 days. We took them to the Limpopo Province. They were joined by the Regional Minister for the Bono Region. They went from one commercial farm to another. They saw how commercial farming is a job creation mechanism. We visited a farm in Limpopo Province and the owner of the farm said he has a 1,000-acre farm. He has 200 permanent workers. During the season, he has 1,000 workers. We are talking about youth unemployment. Farming is a major opportunity, a low-hanging fruit for us to create jobs. If we clear, irrigate the lands and support with mechanisation, we have the potential to produce and export.
Mr Speaker, while we were in South Africa, we went to a maize farm. When we asked them how much was one kilo of maize in South Africa, I think they were selling it for about US$100. One of the Ministers is a farmer in Ghana and he then revealed that we were selling our maize at about US$250 per tonne. Can we imagine the vast difference? That is why when government introduces a policy to support farmers and says School Feeding Programme, which buys locally produced food, if we give the contract to a businessman, he will just cut the corner and go to South Africa, buy the thing at US$100. Even with the cost of logistics, he will get it here at US$150 and he will still make a US$100 on it, and we cannot blame the businessman. So, we need to find ways of making sure that we reduce all the lands that are lying here waste.
Mr Speaker, the last point I want to make is that it is ridiculous—I met a Chinese farmer, and he laughed at me and said, when we import US$4 billion worth of food, do we know what we are doing? I said no. He said, “we are importing US$4 billion worth of water.” Because the fact is, we drop one grain of maize on the ground, it is water that keeps drawing on with some chemicals to grow—The stem will grow to support the crop. So, one grain will now produce 1,000 grains of rice. It is just a function of water. So how can a country that has the biggest man-made lake laying with the White Volta, Black Volta, and all the other rivers that descend from the top, from the east, west, into the Volta—We have all these streams, and we cannot irrigate our country to feed ourselves and we are importing US$4 billion worth of food. That is why I chose to speak to commemorate tomorrow, which is the National Farmers’ Day, to draw attention to something that is pathetic, that as a country, we are importing.
Mr Speaker, as far back as 1963, when former President Kwame Nkrumah developed his seven-year development plan, and constructed the Akosombo Dam, he indicated, when he was addressing Parliament, that there are two reasons why the Akosombo Dam was being constructed. One is for hydroelectric power. Two is for agrobased industrialisation. We were to use the water in the lake to irrigate and produce enough so that we can build on it, to feed the industries so that we can also industrialise. How many decades now? Since 1963, 1970. How many decades now? We still have not achieved this basic objective.
How could Nkrumah be far better than us in this generation? How is it possible that they were better than us in this generation? This generation must sit up. We must manage our country better and let us use this National Farmers’ Day to remind ourselves of our failure. We have failed, and we must remind ourselves of this failure so that we can sit up and do the right thing.
Mr Speaker, thank you,
Hon John Setor Dumelo
Ayawaso West Wuogon
Mr Speaker, I would want to say that tomorrow we are celebrating farmers across the country.
It marks the 41st anniversary under the theme, “Feed Ghana, Eat Ghana, and Secure the Future”. As you all know, it was instituted in 1985. So far, it has been good and has created some form of healthy competition among farmers. One thing is important, that farmers are indeed happy.
Farmers across the country are happy.
One, because we are instituting the Farmers’ Service Centre.
Two, because we are improving our irrigation.
Three, because we are giving money to the National Food Buffer Stock company to buy the excesses from them.
Four, we are establishing processing factories across the country and
five, with the implementation and the launch of the Nkokͻ Nketenkete programme, we are making sure that poultry becomes easy and affordable to most Ghanaians across the country.
Mr Speaker, one of my Colleagues said galamsey is an issue but I have never seen any government more committed to fighting galamsey than the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Government. Currently, we have distributed over 1,000 water pumps seized from these galamsey sites, and all these water pumps have been taken to non- galamsey areas where they are using it for irrigation. So, when we hear that the farmers are not happy, I beg to differ.
Mr Speaker, what I want to say is that this whole week I have been in Ho, and it is incredible to see the amount of work that some of these universities have presented, especially their research work. What we need to do is to be able to bridge the gap between some of these research work and the business community. It is very important that when we go there tomorrow, we would see some of the amazing works that some of the Ghanaian universities are churning out. In conclusion, I would like to make certain remarks.
Mr Speaker, one, I think that each politician here, whether elected or appointed, should be able to own a farm or a processing centre. I think that will be very important.
The second one is that; I think it is about time that Parliament had a farm. We should be able to institute a parliamentary farm, that will become the model for most of us.
The third one is that, we should be able to institute district farms across the country, so that all these district assemblies will be able to own farms and processing centres.
Mr Speaker, in conclusion, I would like to say that, indeed, the farmers are happy. Everyone is happy with the President, H.E John Dramani Mahama. Everyone is happy with the Majority, which is the NDC Government and they are looking forward to the next three years, where will would make sure that farming becomes easy, accessible, affordable, and making sure that food is indeed on the table for everybody.
On this note, I would want to wish all the farmers a happy Farmers’ Day, and also encourage households to be able to set up their farms, so that they would have some backyard farming to do. I am also inviting each and every one of you to Ho. When you come, I would make sure I take good care of you.
Mr Speaker, thank you so much and God bless you.
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