Obrempong Professor Kyem Amponsah II, the Chief of Fiapre in the Sunyani West Municipality has urged farmers to change their ‘ancient’ farming practices to conform to the current weather patterns for their crops to do well.
He observed that the impact of climate change was well felt in the area, saying the unpredictable weather pattern and erratic rainfall required that farmers also adopted modern farm practices agro-ecology.
Obrempong Prof Amponsah II gave the advice when he addressed the Sunyani West Municipal celebration of the 40th national farmers day held at Fiapre, near Sunyani.
The celebration was on the theme “building climate-resilient agriculture for sustainable food security”, and attended by farmers, processors, the academia, government officials, traditional authorities and farmers.
Obrempong Prof Amponsah II urged farmers to always seek advice from Agricultural Extension Officers and the Meteorological Service Agency before they planted their crops and commended them for their immeasurable contributions in enhancing national food security and asked the government to do more in modernizing agriculture.
Mr Evans Kusi Buadum, the Sunyani West Municipal Chief Executive, also praised the government for supplying quantities of mango, coconut, and oil palm seedlings to the farmers in the area.
He said the government was supplying the seedlings free of charge and urged the farmers to report distributors of the seedlings who demanded money from them.
Mr Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations and the Member of Parliament for Sunyani West constituency donated several cutlasses, Wellington boots, farm dresses, and spraying machines to support the celebration.
In all, eight deserving farmers were awarded and received prizes ranging from refrigerators, motor-king tricycles, spraying machines, wax print, wellingtons boots, and other farm inputs.
GNA