ADB awards the National Best Farmer with the grand reward of GHC 1 million.

Last Friday, Nana Yaw Sarpong Siriboe, the 2022 National Best Farmer, received the grand reward of GH1 million from the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) PLC.

This satisfies its long-standing promise to participate in the annual National Farmers Day celebrations, which take place on December 1 of each year.

Nana Siriboe, who won the title of National Best Farmer at the 38th National Farmers’ Day Awards ceremony held in December 2022 in Koforidua in the Eastern Region, is using the prize money to build the Siriboe Agritech Training Institute, a training facility for teaching young people about agriculture, particularly in terms of technology transfer, sustainable farming concepts, and best farming practices.

Testament

At a ceremony to award the prize money, the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr. Bryan Acheampong, noted that the nation’s collective recognition of the significant role farmers played in national development was demonstrated by the fact that the country has celebrated National Farmers Day every year since 1985 to honor its farmers.

“The food we eat, the raw materials for industry, the jobs along the agricultural value chain, and the significant yearly export revenues are all thanks to our farmers.

The recent challenges of COVID-19, Climate Change, and the Russia-Ukraine War, as well as their combined effects on the global economy, particularly increases in food inflation, underline the need to prioritize issues of food security and resilience, he said.

That, according to Dr. Acheampong, also underlined the significance of increased government investments in agriculture and a concerted effort to motivate our farmers.

The title sponsor of the National Farmers Day celebrations, the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB), “deserves special commendation in this regard for consistently sponsoring Farmers Day for decades and providing the ultimate prize to the National Best Farmers every year,” he stated.

Investment

Alhaji Alhassan Yakubu-Tali, the managing director of the ADB, stated that the award will support Nana Siriboe’s personal investment in establishing his proposed institute.

According to him, the plan was worthwhile because of “the enormous benefit we think this institute would bring in terms of creating local sustainable employment that would go a long way to reduce the cancerous rural-urban drift.”

The bank will assign Nana a specific Relationship Manager, as we have in the past, to help ensure the efficient use of the funds. ADB

He emphasized that the ADB took great pride in being the primary sponsor of the National Best Farmers Day since 2001 and that its long-standing support of the Welcome Cocktail, the Farmers’ Forum, and the Ultimate Prize was a reflection of the bank’s unwavering dedication to inspiring the nation’s valiant farmers and fishermen to grow more, feed more people, and generate more wealth for both themselves and the country.

The MD claimed that ADB has changed its positioning in recent years to become the Bank of Choice for agricultural finance and the provision of other related services, such as advising services.

Commitment

Nana Siriboe praised the government and the bank on behalf of the nation for their dedication to and support of agriculture.

In order to inspire and mentor Ghanaian youth, particularly those with tertiary education among whom unemployment is very high, to consider agriculture as a profitable endeavor, he said, “my primary aim for contesting for the National Farmers Award was to have the enabling platform to use my good self as an example to motivate and mentor the country’s youth.”

Since being named the National Best Framer, he claimed, he has used every platform at his disposal to teach and inspire over 3,000 kids, particularly young women in some regions of the country, to pursue careers in agriculture.

According to him, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), and International Food for Agriculture Development (IFAD) identified the lack of knowledge, information, and education as the main obstacle keeping young people in agriculture. ADB

In order to support the efforts of the government and other stakeholders in giving Ghanaian youth and women the chance to access knowledge, information, and education in order to make wealth through agriculture, my office, which is the 2022 National Best Farmer, has launched the establishment of a 600 capacity Agricultural Skills Development and Environmental Sustainability Center, which is 50% complete.

Sustainability

The National Best Farmer 2022 office has been established in Juaben, in the Ashanti Region, according to Nana Siriboe, to ensure continuity and sustainability of the youth mentorship roadshow and farmers’ capacity project, both of which will be started in a few weeks.

Later, Nana Siriboe was given a fake check for $1 million.

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