Mr. Peter Adusie, a 54-year-old tipper truck driver from Adumasa was on Friday 2nd December, 2022 crowned the Best Farmer in the Juaben Municipality.
He took home one motorbike, fridge, four bags of fertilizers, two raincoats, 6 pairs of wellington boots, 6 cutlasses and two knapsack spraying machines.
Mr. Adusie cultivates six acres of maize, three acres of garden eggs, five acres of pepper, two acres of cabbage and onion, two hundred acres of cocoa.
He can also boast of 200 poultry birds, 60 goats, 45 grass cutters, 300 snails and 400 cows in different communities.
On the other hand, eleven (11) industrious farmers and one agriculture staff were also awarded with various prizes. The awards included: wheel barrows, cutlasses, herbicides, radio sets, clothes, bicycle, knapsacks, mist blower, fridges, tricycles, etc.
The Municipal Chief Executive for Juaben Municipal Assembly, Mr. Omane Aboagye reiterated the government’s commitment to strengthen the private sector to lead the agricultural industrialization of the country. He stated that, the government’s focus was to provide the needed technical and financial support to add value to agricultural products.
Mr. Omane also said, the various government agricultural policies and initiatives such as Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ), Planting for Export and Rural Development (PERD), Rearing for Food and Jobs, Special Rice Initiatives among others were geared towards assisting to provide the needed raw materials to support agro industries.
He continued that, the mechanization centre at Nobewam is meant to assist farmers to make their operations easy. He entreated the farmers to pay for the utilization of farm machines.
The MCE ended his speech that, the government is working in strong partnership with other private agricultural firms in the municipality such as Juaben Oil Mills Limited, NGOs and Juaben Rural Bank among others to help augment the production of tree crops.
The Municipal Agric Director, Mr. Adu Gyamfi Alex, commended the farmers in the municipality for their active participation in the various government initiative programmes. He edged the farmers to come together and form groups so they can benefit numerous opportunities from both government and private.
Mr. Adu- Gyamfi also said agriculture is dynamic and business oriented and his office is always available to assist farmers and youth willing to take farming as a business. He informed the gathering that the Municipal distributed 10,000 oil palm seedlings to farmers under Planting for Export and Rural Development (PERD) programme to support rural farmers to improve livelihoods.
Nana Ntiamoah Amankuo, the Chief of Nkyerepoaso who chaired the occasion advised the youth to take agriculture seriously and make sure they benefit from the government Flagship programmes.
He appealed to the government to make funds available to those who want to invest in agriculture. Nana pledged his support to partner with government and make his land available for agricultural development.
-Information Desk – JMA