The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) on Friday called on Ghanaians to revisit the “Operation Feed Yourself” programme, as the nation marks the 39th Farmer’s Day celebration.
Operation Feed Yourself was an agricultural programme administered in the country under military general and then head-of-state Ignatius Kutu Acheampong.
This policy was initiated in February 1972 and remained until the end of Acheampong’s regime in 1978 and it inspired and motivated the citizenry to grow what they eat.
Patrick Dela Newman, the Sunyani Municipal Director of MoFA, who made the call, said the Ministry was poised to assist interested households to engage in backyard gardening to produce crops and vegetables themselves.
This would not only improve nutrition but also increase household food productivity, he stated, while addressing a durbar of farmers to mark the Sunyani Municipal celebration of the 39th Farmer’s Day, held at Antwikrom in the municipality.
In all, 12 deserving farmers were honoured and received prizes ranging from refrigerators, wax print, tricycles, bicycles, polytank, wellington boots, spraying machines, key bar soap, roofing sheets and some agro-chemicals.
Mr Newman expressed worry about the misapplications and uncontrolled use of agro-chemicals on food crops, which remained hazardous to human health, saying “if we are able to plant what we eat, we can avoid all these harmful effects as well”.
In that regard, he explained that the Municipal Directorate of Agriculture would soon identify, collaborate with, and assist some Senior High Schools (SHSs) in the municipality which had boarding facilities to venture into farming and to produce food crops to feed the students.
The Sunyani Municipal Chief Executive, John Ansu Kumi commended the gallant farmers for their hard work and assured of the Assembly’s readiness to support them to expand their farm work in helping to boost national food security.
As one of the food baskets of the nation, he urged farmers in the municipality to capitalise on the Phase two of the Planting for Food and Jobs programme, register and access the many opportunities under the programme and engage in commercial farming activities.
Mr Kumi advised the farmers to seek assistance from the Agric Extension Officers and to ensure proper use of agro-chemicals on their farms.
Farming, according to Mr Kumi, is still a profitable business, despite popular belief that it is only for the poor and academically dull people.
The Divisional Officer Grade Three (DOIII) Agyemang Duah, the Sunyani Municipal Fire Commander, said the ban on bush burning and hunting remained in force.
Inaugurating a 60-member fire volunteers as part of the celebration, he said it was an offence for farmers to handle naked fires on the farm.
He advised farmers who intended to burn their farms to seek assistance from the fire volunteers who would be deployed to the local communities to control bush fires.
DOIII Duah said the municipality recorded 46 fire outbreaks in 2022 causing extensive destruction to properties valued at more than GH₵524,000.