Today, Friday the 1st of December 2023 marks the 39th Farmers’ Day celebration across the country and Yilo Krobo was not left out as the Municipality marks
its district version of the occasion under the national theme “Delivering Smart Solutions for Sustainable Food Security and Resilience”.
The occasion was chaired by Nene Ayertey Ayiborku II who represented the Konor, Oklepeme Nuer Anorbaa Sasraku II.
In his brief acceptance speech, Nene Ayertey Ayiborku II thanked the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Hon. Eric Tetteh and the planning committee for
successful organization of the programme, and thanked all the farmers for their great contributions to national growth and development.
The Municipal Agric Director, Mr. David Kofi Dokli in his address thanked the hardworking farmers for their immense contributions towards the
sustainability of lives in the Yilo Krobo Municipality and Ghana as a whole, and added by way of motivation, that one of the awardees in this year’s
Eastern Regional Farmers’ Day celebration held at Akyemansa District, Ofoase was selected from the Yilo Municipality. Mr. Dokli therefore encouraged all the
farmers to work harder as they were all potential national awardees.
In his keynote address, the MCE of Yilo Krobo Municipal Assembly, Hon. Eric Tetteh, commended the selfless and hardworking farmers who had defied the orders
of climate change and global warming to work assiduously to produce food to feed the good people of Yilo, and added, that government intervention in agriculture
in the past seven (7) years was not only tilted at creation of jobs for the youth but most importantly for food sustainability to feed the teaming population of our dear nation,
Ghana.
The MCE further sated, that the planting for food and jobs, planting for export and rural development, seedlings and fertilizer distributions among others were all aimed
at improving agriculture, making it attractive as a viable venture for all manner of persons and at the same time producing food in abundance.
Hon. Eric Tetteh also said that government had developed a five-year plan to implement the phase two of the planting for food and jobs, and indicated that under this phase,
government would establish Agricultural Zones and hoped that the planting for food and jobs will remove the bottlenecks that affected food security to enable Ghana
to move from 5% to 7% self-sufficiency by the end of 2023 and 13% by the end of 2024 as estimated.
The MCE admitted that acquisition of land for agricultural purposes was a major challenge for food security and urged all land owners to make terms of leasing land to farmers more flexible.
The overall Municipal best farmer went to Mr. Salifu Mohamed from Sikaben. He was presented with a deep freezer, weedicide, and other agriculture accoutrement.
In all, eighteen (18) deserving farmers were awarded.
In his closing remarks, Nene Ayertey Ayiborku II, the representative of the Kornor said “ayekoo” to all farmers and particularly to those who won awards.
All things being equal, Farmers Day is celebrated on the first Friday of December every year, and incidentally, this year’s farmers’ day which falls on
1st December 2023 coincides with World AIDS Day; a day set aside for the commemoration of World’s AIDS day. The Municipal Health Director, Mrs. Irina Ofei therefore used
the occasion to remind the public about the devastating effect of HIV/AIDS on humanity and workface, and the need for everybody to be cautious of their sexual lives and take the needed precautions.
According to Mrs. Ofei, the municipality had recorded 178 new cases of people infected with HIV/AIDS from January to June, 2023.
She however said that the municipality has three (3) facilities that offer HIV treatment services namely; Somanya polyclynic; Klo-Agogo and Nkurakan, and added that plans were underway
to train people for the District hospital for the same purpose