According to them, rural farmers, majority of them women, formed the largest farming group in the country and accounted for about half of the agricultural labour force but their work was often not acknowledged.

“We are into farming, processing, marketing and packaging as well and we form the larger number of farmers in the country so if the government wants to eradicate poverty and encourage the younger generation to see farming as lucrative and venture, then  it must give us the necessary recognition and support, ” they said.

FONG, a non-governmental organisation working to empower rural women in farming and to take active part in decision making on national issues, made the call at the national celebration of this year’s World Rural Women's Day at Assin Nyankomase in the Central Region.

The celebration was organised by FONG with sponsorship from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Farmer-based Organisations (FBO), SEND-Ghana, and Africa Lead.

It was on the theme: “Empowering our women, ensuring food security and promoting nutrition.” It was to create awareness and highlight the important role rural women played in food production, food security and nutrition, and rural enterprises.

It brought together rural women from all over the country who displayed various food stuff such as cassava, plantain, yam, gari, palm oil as well as other locally made items including artifacts like baskets.

Madam Gladys Serwaa Adusah, Middle Zone Women's Leader of FONG said the World Rural Women's Day was to give recognition and support for the multiple role women played  to the well-being of their families.

She said Government must therefore see the celebration as its responsibility and help FONG and other stakeholder organisations to duly celebrate it.  She noted that many of the available support from Government to farmers went to cocoa farmers with no support for crop growers despite working hard to feed the population.

She called on the Government to provide equal assistance to all farmers so that they could expand their farms to produce enough food to feed the country. She said it was imperative for the Government to put in place development initiatives for rural farmers to acquire education, health, insurance for farmers and other basic services.

Mrs Adusah encouraged women farmers not to be discouraged about their farming activities and rather work hard to achieve the benefits of their farming activities. She commended Africa Lead for the continuous support and training of rural women farmers, which had inspired many women to venture into the cultivation of crops, hitherto dominated by men.

Dr Kofi Blankson, Assin Central Municipal Chief Executive applauded the significant role women played in the agricultural sector adding that, the contribution of rural women in the growth of agriculture was crucial to national development.  He gave the assurance that Government would make farming a profitable venture in a bid to strengthen the economy.

Mrs Eunice Adofo Boanya, Communication Officer of Africa Lead said Africa Lead decided to support the rural women’s day celebration to recognise the important role they played despite the numerous challenges they faced.

She urged Government to come out with comprehensive programmes to help women farmers’ access credit facilities, secure lands, receive training to facilitate their farming activities as they were the major challenges facing women farmers.

Africa Lead is a USAID funded project and a feed the future project, a US Government global hunger and food security initiative to reduce hunger and poverty in Africa through transformational leadership in agriculture.It has for the past three years supported the celebration of World Rural Women’s Day celebration in various ways and provided capacity building for many rural women across Africa.