Twenty four farmers, fishermen and officials were honoured on Friday for being the best farmers and officials in the Eastern Region in the agriculture industry for the year 2008 at the celebration of the 24th Eastern Regional Farmer' Day at Nkyenua in the Akuapem North District.
The overall regional best farmers' award was won by Mr. Dey Tete of Suhum and was presented with a voice recorder, a pair of Wellington boots, three cutlasses, a full piece of cloth, a spraying machine, a quantity of agro-chemicals, a corn mill and a certificate.
Mr. Ohene Apintua of Obuoba FM was among the award winners for being the regional best presenter of programmes on agriculture.
At the district level, 20 farmers and an official of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) received the best farmers' award for the Akuapem North District with the over all best award going to Mr Jonas Avademeh of Otarisu.
Speaking at the function, the Adukromhene, Nana Otutu Kono called on the government to make conscious efforts to rehabilitate roads leading to cocoa and food growing areas of the country.
He expressed regret that despite the impressive performance that the award winners have demonstrated in terms of acreage of their farms, most of them do not get their produce to the marketing centres because of the poor nature of the roads leading to their farms.
Nana Kono expressed his appreciation to the efforts of government in supporting farmers with financial assistance and subsidizing some agricultural inputs but said more needed to be done.
The Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Kwadwo Affram-Asiedu, said globalization was offering an opportunity for Ghanaians to go into big time commercial enterprises in the agriculture sector.
He therefore called on financial institutions, especially the banks to take a second look at their interest rates and credit facilities and come out with packages that would help industrious farmers especially the young graduate agriculturalists to go into commercial farming.
In a welcoming address, the Akuapem North District Chief Executive, Mr Edward Adu Aboagye, called for support from all stakeholders in the agriculture sector to help reduce any shock from the global recession.