The Ayawaso East Munici-pal Assembly (AEMA), De-partment of Agriculture in Accra, has awarded three persons in the municipality for their contri-bution to agriculture production in the country
This was during the 38th Na-tional Farmers' Day celebration held on the theme "Accelerating Agricultural Development through Value Addition".
The assemblyman for 37 Mil-itary Hospital electoral area, Mr Awuni Tongo Moro emerged as the overall Municipal Best Farmer and took home a chest freezer, flat screen TV set, two crocodile machetes, one pair of wellington boots, four bags of compound fertiliser, assorted drinks, knapsack spray and certificate.
Also a 21-year-old nursing mother, Ms Bless Fennku, won the Municipal Best Crop Farmer who also took home a chest freezer, two crocodile machetes, two pairs of wellington boots, assorted drinks, three bags of compound fertiliser, certificate and knapsack spray.
The third award, Municipal Best Livestock Farmer was won by, Mr Baba Awudu, who took home a chest freezer, two crocodile ma-chetes, a pair of wellington boots, assorted drinks and a certificate.
The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of AEMA, Hajia Salma Mohammed Sani Adam-Kuta, in an address encouraged and entreat-ed all farmers not to be discour-aged by the limitations they faced in the production of food.
Instead, they should take solace in this year's celebration theme and convert their weaknesses into strength by employing available technologies at their disposal to convert raw food produced into finished products.
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"The Agriculture Department intends to introduce some training programmes on new technologies of utilising the limited spaces with-in the communities for farming ac-tivities such as mushroom farming and processing, rabbit production and fish farming in 2023,
"In view this, beneficiaries of these programmes should take ad-vantage of it and other agricultural programmes of the assembly to accelerate agricultural development in the municipality," she stated.
Hajia Adam-Kuta further ad-vised farmers to always play their useful roles in the agricultural value chain, and not give up but to con-tinue working hard to ensure food security in the country.
On his part, Head of Agricul-tural Department, AEMA, Rev. Charles Asem-Bansah, said the year was a difficult one for the department as budget for most of the planned programmes were "thrown out of gear due to infla-tionary issues."
"Although we faced some challenges this year, the depart-ment managed to carry out its programmes with the limited funds at its disposal and we want to com-mend the assembly for its com-mitment to providing the enabling environment and material support for the department to organise this event for four consecutive years now," he said.
