Santa Opio, Global Water Initiative (GWI) “Champion Farmer” collecting cassava in her fields. Subsistence farmers in East Africa are facing huge challenges because of climate variability which means that they often experience a shortage of rainfall in the growing season. They have traditionally relied on rainfall for irrigation, but now need to adopt new techniques to ensure that they can continue to survive and feed their families.
Mr Edmund Kwabena Nkansah, the 2009 Akuapim South District Best Farmer, has advised farmers to adopt “exposure visits” to farms where modern agricultural techniques are practiced to learn from them.
He explained that there are various methods of learning modern agricultural techniques to increase yields in order to enhance incomes.
He said the exposure visits are the easiest and most practical way for the farmers to adopt to technology.
Mr Nkansah who was the Chairman for this year’s Farmers Day event at Ahwerease-Darmang, near Nsawam congratulated the eight young award winners in the district.
He advised the unemployed youth to learn from the winners and consider agriculture as one of the best income generating opportunities.
He explained how beneficial the rural enterprise projects in the districts could be to them and advised them to take advantage of the income generating skills training.
The Chairman pleaded with the chiefs and elders of the various communities to warn their subjects to desist from behaviours that could cause bushfires as the dry season had set in.
“Destruction of farms by bushfires creates multiple problems to farmers, the … public and the nation,” he said.
Mr Nkansah who is a staff of Ministry of Finance owns about 100 acres of plantation at Ahwerease-Darmang comprising citrus, tangerine, coconut and aluguntugu, in addition to livestock.
Mr Annor Dompreh, Member of Parliament for the area advised the citizens to do whatever is possible to “leave the world around them better than they came to meet it.”
He advocated for agricultural insurance and scholarship for the children of “non-traditional agricultural products”.
