Background

Ghana has set aside the first Friday in December of every year as a day to celebrate farmers and fishermen. This is a public holiday characterised by funfair and pomp and pageantry nationwide.

The first event is reported to have been held on Friday, 6^th December 1985 at Osino in the Eastern Region. Since then the event has been held from place to place with that for this year (2019) being held at Ho in the Volta Region.

Annually, a national best farmer is picked who is given prizes ranging from cash to other prizes presented in kind. This is also done at the district and municipal levels where their respective best farmer is awarded prizes. This year, the best farmer was awarded GH₵ 526,000 in cash and GH₵ 500,000 worth of insurance cover from Glico.

Does it benefit all?

As with most award schemes, only the one adjudged to be the best wins. This means not everyone gets the chance to win these sumptuous prices nor is it actually meant for everybody. It is good to reward good practices as a way of encouraging others to emulate their good example. Nevertheless, this concentration of money and focus on only the winners is a worrying trend. This is because the money is just for an individual, with almost total control as to what to use it for. Meanwhile, a fraction of this could provide communal equipment like tractors for the use of communities seen as trailblazers in farming. This way, the resources are not concentrated in the hands of a few who are considered “best” to the near detriment of other players in the industry who are mostly small scale farmers. According to a publication by Sustainable Agricultural Intensification Research and Learning in Africa (SAIRLA) in June this year, Ghana has one of the highest soil depletion rates in Sub-Saharan Africa, and this coupled with climate change is putting the livelihoods of small scale farmers who account for more than 70% of Ghana’s Agricultural scape at risk.

With this in mind, the several donations made into the celebration of a single day can also be put in a fund that farmers can access to boost their farming. This is particularly important because many financial institutions see farming as a risky venture and hesitate to provide financial assistance to players in this field. In a report on sectoral credit distribution of outstanding credit in 2013 by the Bank of Ghana, the agricultural sector had a mere 4% credit as compared to the services and industry sectors which had 65% and 31% respectively. This clearly demonstrates that the sector does not receive adequate attention from financial institutions in Ghana. By setting up a fund with donations made towards the national farmer’s day, the nation will be giving farmers assess to credit aside those provided by mainstream financial institutions who shy away from financing the Agriculture sector.

To put things in perspective, Agricultural Development Bank alone donated GH₵ 560,000 and Olam Ghana doled out GH₵ 150,000 in support of celebrations this year. With the theme for the year being “Enhancing Small Scale Agriculture towards Agribusiness Development,” putting these funds to the use of all will indicate a readiness to really help the small scale farmer beyond the talk.

The need for balance

Ghana’s national best farmers scheme has favoured mostly men since its inception. In fact, all the award winners in the past decade are men with none being a female. The average age of a winner for the past ten(10) years (editions) is 52 with the youngest person awarded in the past decade being 38 (in 2012). This can be blamed on the structure of the awards scheme which focusses mainly on one's farm size and its aim of incentivising mainly people with big farms. By doing it this way, it becomes exclusive with no inclusiveness coming into play.

Since the inception of the awards scheme in 1985, it was only in 2004 that a woman, Madam Efua Frimpomaa, was crowned as the best farmer. Since then, no woman has ever clocked the ultimate. This lack of gender sensitivity of the award coupled with the considerably aging group of winners is a call for a review of how the prize is disbursed. Creating categories for these groups is not enough and more should be done to level the playing field for all in the Agriculture sector.

In conclusion, Agriculture is a key player in Ghana’s GDP and would contribute immensely to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 1 (no poverty) and 2(zero hunger). This can be achieved through finetuning measures such as the national farmer’s day which seeks to advance the welfare of farmers.

Abednego Brandy Opey                  

BSc. Agricultural Biotechnology

contact: www.bit.ly/abedopey & abedopey@gmail.com