The Municipal Chief Executive for Ayawaso East Municipal Assembly, Hon.Hajia Salma Sani Mohammed Adams-Kuta has said the advent of the recent pandemic has prompted government on the need to process perishable food produce into dried products to increase their shelf lives and ensure their availability at all times of uncertainties.
Furthermore, she said greater effort must be placed on the need to mechanize our farm operations to reduce the dependence on human labour.
Speaking at the second National Farmers Day celebration of the Ayawaso East Municipal Assembly on the theme “ensuring agribusiness development under covid-19- Opportunities and Challenges, he said another opportunity presented by Covid-19 is the reliance on local food and local planting materials as the dependence on foreign food chains resulted in disruptions in food supply chains as countries closed their borders due to the pandemic.
She said the assembly since its inception has developed programmes to support government policies on Agriculture such as planting for food and jobs in spite of the limited land space for agricultural activities.
Government, he said has provided inputs such as insecticides through the department of Agriculture to farmers to control fall army worms in support of Planting for Food and Jobs.
The Municipal Director of Agriculture, Rev.Charles Asem-Bansah, said the restrictions of Covid- 19 and the resultant staying at home has led to the emergence of innovative farming practices such as in-home gardening and rooftop farming to mitigate food shortages especially fresh vegetables which are suitable in urban areas such as the municipality.
He commended the assembly for its commitment to providing the enabling environment and the material support for the Department to function.
The overall best farmer was Mr.Bernard Larkai, a 36 year old farmer, CEO of Bossmajor Farms and current student of the university of Ghana.
For his prize, he received a set of agricultural implements.
By Francis Cofie