Farmers worked on Farmers' Day - Chief Farmer | 3News.com

The Chief Farmer of the Twifo Praso District in the Central Region, Samuel Adu-Gyamfi in an interview with Alfred Ocansey on the 3FM Sunrise Morning Show has outlined some of the key challenges confronting farmers which needed the urgent intervention of government and major stakeholders.

According to him, most of the farmers are peasant farmers who are battling with high cost of labour and inputs like fertilizers, pesticides, weedicides, seedlings and other farming implements as well as bad roads which have made some of the farms not accessible thereby hindering the marketing of farm produce.

He mentioned that though the day is supposed to be Farmers’ Day which is a national holiday, almost all farmers have gone to their farms

How many bunches of plantain will you have to harvest before you get GHC 1000 or GHC 2000 from your plantain farm to take care of your family

The Chief Farmer who is also a retired Agriculture Extension Officer expressed worry over how governments and policy makers have not paid attention to the grievances of farmers to proffer appropriate solutions to them but rather formulate policies from above without or with less inputs of the farmers who are on the grounds.

He explained that continues cropping on most farmlands have rendered them less fertile which has reduced the potential yields that should be gotten from an acre hence requires more fertilizer application but however, the prices of fertilizers have increased astronomically in recent times.

Despite the fact that you have the right seeds and input materials, if your farm is weedy, you will not have enough yields as supposed” he stated.