Managing Editor of the Insight News Paper, Kwesi Pratt Junior has described national farmers’ day celebration as a platform for investors in the agriculture enterprises to get more money to the detriment of the real farmers. The first Friday of December each year has been declared as a national holiday to celebrate farmers.
According to Mr. Pratt the vast majority of the farmers were in their farms harvesting their crops. He said farmers will not abandon their farms because it will be too risky for them to do that just to celebrate some holidays. “you don’t understand farmers dedication to their farms. Farmers are so dedicated to their crops like mothers to their children and they do not enjoy these ‘funny holidays,’ Mr.Pratt stressed.
You don’t celebrate farmers by gathering investors in agricultural enterprises once a year who may never have held a cutlass before or may never visit their farms, that’s no the way to celebrate farmers, the veteran journalists fumed.
While government officials and other working forces were relaxing at their various homes, the very people whose work occasioned the holiday were in their farms struggling with bush fires. Celebrating people without their presence is seemingly becoming part and parcel of national holidays in Ghana.
Some teachers in the Tamale metropolis who spoke to Zaa News on this year’s teachers’ awards day celebration expressed their unhappiness about the celebration. While the national celebration was going on in Tamale, they were in classrooms.
On the 31st national farmers’ day celebration, most of the farmers who attended the ceremonies were either coming from their farms or waiting for it to be over so they could go and continue their activities as it is harvesting season.
The Farmers’ Day was instituted by the Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC) government in 1985 in recognition of the vital role farmers and fishers play in the economy especially the highly commendable output of farmers and fishermen in 1984 during which Agriculture contributed to 30 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product(GDP).
But speaking on an Accra-based Radio Gold weekend program Alhaj & Alhaji, the veteran journalist said the best way to celebrate farmers is by making sure that farmers’ children’s education are catered for, making extension services available to them on a daily basis, providing credit and ensuring farmers have access to inputs.
The Insight Managing Editor however lauded government for the establishment of cold stores around some beaches in the country. He said the post-harvest losses still remain a major challenge facing farmers in the country and government need to do all it could to address it.