On Friday, December 4, 2009, farmers in the country will go through an annual ritual which began 25 years ago. Time can play tricks on the human memory, so it is necessary to recount the humble beginnings of what has now become the National Farmers Day.
Between 1982 and 1984, the country suffered a serious drought which members of that generation could not remember anything in history to compare to.
By 1984, the country had been ravaged by devastating bushfires, which reduced the land bare and dry, with very little green vegetation.
The cocoa farms were all gone and so were food crops. The hunger reached excruciating levels when in 1983, more than one million Ghanaians were chased out of Nigeria to return to what they were escaping from.
Our situation then might not have been as bad and desperate as the Ethiopian and Somalian cases, but all the same, Ghanaians had to endure a severe famine never experienced for decades.That was how the National Mobilisation Squads, Mobisquads for short, came into existence to clear the farms and replant the cocoa trees.
The activities of the Mobisquads were expanded to involve other community projects such as construction of classroom blocks, roads, toilets and many others.
In 1984, having emerged from this natural and human calamity, the National Mobilisation Programme (NMP), under the chairmanship of Commodore Steve Obimpeh, and the Ghana Federation of Agricultural Co-operatives (GHAFACOOPS), under Togbe Sasraku, put together a programme to celebrate with farmers their heroic role in the restoration of agricultural activities after the long drought and famine.
That was how, in December of 1984, farmers from all over the country came to gather at Osino in the Eastern Region, to receive honours from the state.
The Osino meeting, at which Captain Kojo Tsikata (retd), member of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), was the guest speaker, was modest by all standards, and farmers who won awards, including the national best farmer went home with sacks, cutlasses, Wellington boots, bicycles and certificates. Others not so lucky consoled themselves with handshakes.
Later, the government of the PNDC felt there should be a special day devoted to farmers and fishermen, in recognition of their hard work in feeding the nation and sustaining the economy. That was how the first Friday in December was institutionalised as the National Farmers� Day.
The National Farmers� Day, which has been observed religiously since then, has undergone transformation in significance, stature and substance.
With the support of corporate institutions and a few individuals, the day has systematically advanced beyond the days of cutlasses, Wellington boots, jute sacks, bicycles and certificates to the present when the National Best Farmer collects keys to a three-bedroom house, while the two runners-up drive home powerful pickups.
It is like the biblical saying that those who have, shall have more added to them.
The celebration has endured for the last 25 years, but as to whether or not the spirit behind the celebration has survived, is another matter. First, some people are of the view that there should be some modifications to improve upon the celebration.
They are also of the opinion that the district and the regional celebrations should not coincide with the national one, because the latter always takes the glamour off the lesser ones.
It is felt that it would be a good idea to separate the district and the regional celebrations, after which the Grand National celebration will take place on the first Friday of December.
Others also think there is rather too much concentration on big-scale farmers to the neglect of the subsistent farmers who are in the majority and whose contributions to food production cannot be ignored.
The most important question, however, is how has agriculture fared since the institution of the National Farmers� Day? Seriously speaking, agriculture is still at the subsistence level and excessively over-reliant on nature�s goodwill.
I mean food production in the country is in the main rain-fed. That means anytime the rains fail, the nation is at the risk of suffering from famine. Incidentally, this is a country endowed with large volumes of water which could easily irrigate the land and make agricultural production an all-year-round affair. This is where we have failed miserably.
Burkina Faso, our northern neighbours, have utilised the water in the Volta for farming and it is not strange to us in Ghana that we buy vegetables and spices from them on a regular basis.
The Minister of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), Mr Kwesi Ahwoi, raised hopes a few weeks into his administration when he announced that plans were afoot to go into big-time irrigation in the Afram and Accra plains, which have the River Volta and its lake flowing through them.
This is not the first time Ghanaians have heard of transforming the plains into the food basket and granary of the country, and we only hope that Mr Ahwoi�s declaration will also not turn out to be one of those political talks.
It is unpardonable that a small country like Ghana, with vast fertile lands, should be a net importer of food items, especially rice, which is a staple in most homes.
The recent decision by the government to re-impose import duties on certain food items, including rice and poultry products is in the right direction, at least to assure local farmers that the local market will be theirs to take.
But that is just one step, which may not yield much if not matched with credit facilities and subsidised inputs to facilitate expansion of farms and increase in production levels.
I believe this is what the subsistence farmers are yearning for. And who knows, this attention will push them into the commercial and big-time range.
The greatest tribute the state can pay farmers is to make their vocation dignifying and self-rewarding. Farmers complain of poor prices during bumper harvests because roads to most food-growing areas are very bad and hardly accessible.
Naturally, the market women who risk their lives and go to the producing centres call the shots. Another area in which we have failed is storage and preservation.
Dr Kwame Nkrumah, typical of his approach to national development, embarked upon construction of silos in various parts of the country. Almost all of these silos remain as symbols of national decay long after the man�s overthrow.
In the same way, we have not been able to exploit the benefits of fruit production in the country. While our mangoes, oranges and pineapples rot, we have, with a misplaced sense of pride, stocked our supermarkets with canned fruits from other parts of the world.
When we add value to farm produce through storage, preservation and processing, we will be doing more than just glorifying farmers.
But we will be empowering them to take their destiny into their own hands. It will also give a boost to the economy more than just exporting raw materials.
The National Farmers� Day has come to stay. But we need to do more than just assembling a few farmers out of the lot for honours, if we are to make agriculture generally attractive and rewarding.
We need to go beyond the fanfare, if we are to achieve food security, which is the only way we can guarantee our independence and sovereignty. Well done, our farmers.
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