Rawlings' Goodwill Message To Farmers

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Created on Friday, 02 November 2012 00:00

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Rawlings' Goodwill Message To Farmers

02 November 2012

It is a special honour once again to salute all farmers on the occasion of the National Farmers Day - a day set aside in recognition of the pivotal role farmers play towards national development.

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Ghana celebrates farmers, for feeding the ever-growing population, for providing raw material to factories and also, for contributing substantial revenue, especially foreign exchange to the national coffers.

Your Toil, Sweat, Dedication, And Hard Work to Sustain Ghana’s Economy, Is Worthy of Celebration.

Any country that is incapable of feeding itself cannot also talk of economic development. It is for this reason, that merely saying Ayekoo, does not adequately express our appreciation of your good works; our dear farmers; Nonetheless, I am proud to wish all farmers the best of celebrations during the 2012 edition of Farmers’ Day, a day I am always proud to have helped to initiate.

Agricultural governance has made a paradigm shift to include the entire commodity value chain. This entails the provision of appropriate regulations to protect farmers from those who may take undue advantage of the climate of free market economy, to trade in inferior agricultural inputs such as seeds, fertilizers and plant protection chemicals in the industry.

It is my believe that, the only way we can guarantee that the majority of Ghanaians will have improved living standards is to ensure that there is significant productivity improvement in agriculture, food security, and economic prosperity for Farmers.

Food must be available. Food must be cheap, and once our food requirements are met, all else will fall in place.

Successive governments should also take a significant look at the transport of foodstuff from the growingareas to the various markets across the country. Lack of adequate road and rail infrastructure means food is transported expensively, leading to extreme price hikes and in some cases abuse of farmers by unscrupulous middle men. Farming will become more attractive if the cost of growing and distributing produce is reduced significantly by a concerted national investment in agricultural development infrastructure.

I wish to salute our gallant Farmers once more on this special day, and encourage you all to remain steadfast inyour noble profession.

Ayekoo!!!

Source: Office of Former President Rawlings