Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto – Agric Minister
Mr. William Bako, a 27-year-old blind farmer from the Kentenkre community, picked the best disabled farmer award at the New Juaben South Municipal Farmers Day celebration at Nyamekrom.
He received a wheelbarrow, small sized barrel, a pair of Wellington boots, spraying machine, half piece of cloth, radio set, three litres of weedicide and five machetes.
He farms two acres of maize, one acre of cowpea, one acre of plantain and rears 25 goats as well as 15 local fowls and hires two farmhands when the need arises.
Mr. Isaac A. Gyesi, the Municipal Chief Executive of New Juaben South, said the municipal  assembly was to promote a paradigm shift in farming in the municipality from the traditional farming to a business-oriented agriculture that responds and propels economic growth.
The New Juaben Municipal Director of Agriculture, Mr. Kofi A. Tweneboah, expressed dissatisfaction with the response of farmers in the municipality to the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) programme.
He said this year, government under the PFJ initiative provided 670 bags of compound fertilizer(NPK) and 335 bags of urea but only 366 bags of NPK and 187 bags of urea had been picked by the farmers as at the end of November this year.
Mr. Tweneboah said farmers in the municipality showed interest in vegetable production for export, therefore his office was working jointly with the Ghana Export Promotion Authority and the Ministry of Trade to partner with SRIGHAN limited to train and support the farmers.
GNA