THANK THE FARMER!

Yesterday, 4 December, 2009 witnessed the celebration of the ‘National Best Farmers’ day in the Northern Region. I have been pessimistic about the exploits and the prospect of farmers surviving in a country where the rural-urban bias is so deep and cutting to a point of disgust.

The year 2009 is marked with a remarkable explosion of food in the country all by the giant strides of our illustrious farmers who shed off shame of feeding people who have no sense of appreciation whatsoever.

Today, as you read this piece of mine, students even on university campuses have liquidated the idea of our leaders encouraging the youth to enter into our nearly ‘moribund’ farming business. I vividly remember in the year 2008 vowing to challenge any of our national leaders who will with ‘impunity’ unnecessarily refer us to retire to farming even in the face of clear neglect and ‘survive on your own’ attitude.

This goes to reinforce the current fashion of our national leaders resorting to ‘big big’ conferences and seminars with expensive wine and ‘fat’ allowances all in the name of ‘thinking’ for the impoverished, poverty and curable disease stricken people.

Today, as a result of the lacuna attitude of our national policy makers who do not have ‘mass-interest’ orientation have created a situation of imbalance where the agricultural sector will be abandoned years to come. Even in the midst of the abundance, some people still sleep with hunger panging at their stomachs like never before, people are still suffering of commonly curable diseases like malaria, and cholera among others.

So yesterday, upon seeing the flashes of smiles on the faces of those who won the prizes and those who graced the occasion reinvigorated the hope in me, that, there are still some Ghanaians who in the midst of ‘total’ and lack of commercialized and mechanical farming would want to help put smiles on the faces of our children who are constantly dying out of malnutrition.

I am forever, grateful for the service farmers have rendered to my family and me in keeping us healthy and alive up to this day.

If you are healthy and can access ‘three or two’ square meals a day, say thank you to the farmer sitting by you and help eliminate hunger in our homes especially yours.