Deputy Minister for Food and Agriculture (Crops), Mr Yaw Frimpong Addo, has disclosed that the annual farmers day celebration is scheduled to take place on December 3, 2021.

According to him, MoFA is preparing to ensure the successful celebration of farmers. Mr Frimpong Addo revealed that the event will take place in Cape Coast, in the Central Region and it’s“significantly” so because the Region is a “hybrid” and one of the few that has both the forest and the sea.

“The Farmer’s Day was instituted in 1985. After the terrible famine of 1983, it was felt by the then military government to do something to motivate farmers. They agreed on the first Friday of every December and significantly so because the harvest period peak [was] in December. Since that time every year it has been celebrated. It was only last year elections that they shifted it. It’s going to take place Friday, 3^rd December 2021”.
Mr Yaw Frimpong Addo

Mr Frimpong Addo underscored that once he was nominated by President Akufo-Addo, the sector minister assigned him to head the “planning committee” and the team has since then been planning for the event for about four months now.

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“In fact, we had our last meeting yesterday and there’s a local organising committee also headed by the central regional minister. As we speak now, everything is under control and the plans are being executed according to what is supposed to be done every day”.
Mr Yaw Frimpong Addo

The deputy minister revealed that so far, lots of companies have donated towards the celebration of the event. He indicated that the first prize winner will be presented with a prize of $100, 000 from ADB by President Akufo-Addo on the day.

“The program starts on Monday, 29^th of November with the exhibition of all the regions. We have sixteen regions, so all the 16 regions will come in turns and the climax is the 3^rd where we have the grand durbar”.
Mr Yaw Frimpong Addo

Stakeholders championing the farmers day celebration

Commenting on the list of stakeholders, the Deputy Agric minister for crops revealed that there are “quite a number” of them. He noted that when agriculture is mentioned in the country, the first group of people who are mentioned are the farmers, fishermen and fishmongers.

“Beyond them then you come to the financial institutions. We have the ADB, Exim Bank, Stanbic and then we have the input suppliers; these are the people who make things happen in agriculture. Then, we come to the ministry itself… We have the ministry for fisheries and aquaculture development, then we have COCOBOD…”
Mr Yaw Frimpong Addo

Giving a background to the theme of the year, Mr Frimpong Addo intimated that recently, there was a UN food summit held in Rome and because it’s about food systems, the ministry deemed it right to develop a theme along those lines, without leaving out the “star program”, being the Planting for Food and Jobs.