NO nation that has travelled the path of greatness has lacked the ability to feed itself.
Indeed, securing domestic or national food self-sufficiency is a prerequisite for a nation to truly assert its independence, sovereignty and freedom and by dint of this be in a position to stand tall and demand equal and fair treatment in the comity of nations.
It is, therefore, no accident that those nations that have laid claim to the status of great or developed nations have met their domestic food requirements leaving surpluses for export to food-deficient nations.
It is a puzzle for some that a nation like China, with one quarter of the world's population, can feed itself and have surplus for export while some other nations in Africa and Latin America with smaller populations cannot feed themselves.
For nations like Ghana located in the tropics and with smaller populations and huge tracts of uncultivated arable lands, there is clearly no excuse for our inability to feed ourselves and even become net exporters of food.
Yesterday, as we marked yet another Farmers Day in honour of our hard-working and dedicated farmers and fishermen, the evidence of their ability to feed this nation was made manifest.
Reports from across the country indicate that the nation, through the hard work of our farmers and for the good climatic conditions, is set to record one of the best harvest in recent times. Cereals like rice, maize and root crops like yam and cassava are reported to have done so well that they will outstrip the impressive record chalked up last year.
In the face of these developments, we are duly concerned about the lack of adequate machines to facilitate a speedy, timely and efficient harvests of huge quantities of these crops which still remain on the fields.
Many farmers, especially those who cultivate rice and maize, are compelled to harvest those crops manually because of the lack of combine harvesters and the very huge cost of the few available.
This not only results in significant post-harvest losses and thus reduces yields and incomes of farmers but also exposes large hectares of produce to the threat of bush fires, which are, particularly, devastating during harmattan, which is the period we are experiencing now.
The government, through the Minister of Food and Agriculture, must do something urgent about the procurement of combine harvesters, which should have come to enhance the work of the tractors the government imported and distributed to farmers late last year and early this year.
We are also aware that steps are being taken by the Bulk Produce Buying Company to purchase available produce from our farmers and thus guarantee them ready market for their produce.
This is clearly an incentive to ensure greater production of food and so steps should be taken to ensure that prices for farm produce are good as the case was last year, to keep the enthusiasm of farmers going.
We would want to use this occasion to appeal to the government to endeavour to enforce its own decision that public institutions, especially schools, would patronise or be supplied rice and maize produced locally.
This should help provide additional ready market for our farm produce and in this way encourage our farmers to produce more.
On this important occasion of Farmers Day, we would want to join millions of Ghanaians who appreciate the sacrifices and hard work of our farmers and fishermen to say Ayeekoo to all of them for continuing to make food and fish available at reasonable prices for all of us. We salute you our hard-working farmers (both crop and animal farmers) and fishermen.
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