A lecturer at the Faculty of Agriculture at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) is calling for a modification in the criteria for determining and awarding National Best farmers.
Currently, well-resourced persons who have large farms and are technologically informed are likely to become national best farmers.
Prof. Simon Cudjoe Fialor however believes the current criteria stifles innovation and should be reconsidered.
“In my opinion, I wish when the large scale one is done on the national level, a small scale farmer is also rewarded on the same platform for innovation despite the small size of the farm, another is rewarded for efficiency in managing resources like the soil environment or indigenous problem solving” he told Bernard Buachi of ghanagong.com in an interview.
He says taking such steps will encourage more innovation and provide the needed confidence for small scale farmers to thrive.
He says if a niche was created such that innovations in problem solving are rewarded, farmers will be encouraged to solve problems the indigenous way.
He states that small scale farming is an important phenomenon in Ghanaian Agriculture considering that over 60% of Ghanaian farmers are small scale farmers and need to be encouraged on important occasions as the national farmers’ day celebrations.
Ghana held her annual farmers’ Day Celebrations on 7th December, 2018
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