Every first Friday in the month of December is set aside in Ghana as National Farmers Day to celebrate gallant farmers who are doing well. The late president J.J Rawlings initiated or introduced the celebration in 1984.
George Arthur, a mining consultant in an interview with Nana Ekow Darko (JB) on Kingdom FM’s Saturday morning show in Kumasi has challenged government to invest in agriculture and make it look lucrative and put a stop to the National farmers day celebration every year.
According to him, the national Farmers Day has no relevance and impact on the farmers because the Agric sector in Ghana lacks investment from the government.
According to him, government has over the years refused to consider the welfare of farmers as a priority.
George Arthur in the interview said: “if government invest in agribusiness, farmers will be happy and will not wait for farmers day to be celebrated”. He said if Ghana can borrow to pay debt, then we can borrow as well to invest in Agriculture.
Recently, cocoa farmers threatened to boycott the farmers day celebration over the implementation of the cocoa farmers’ pension scheme by withholding produce from markets.
The government launched the scheme to provide guaranteed retirement benefits to over 1.5 million cocoa farmers across the country.
But the farmers are kicking against the scheme’s implementation and have questioned the composition of the board used by the Ghana Cocoa Board to carry out the program.
