Charity Akortia Is 2023 National Best Farmer

A 57-year old woman from the Agona West Municipality in the Central Region has been crowned as the National Best Farmer for 2023.

For her prize, Charity Akortia received a cash prize of GH¢1 million sponsored by the Agriculture Development Bank.

Theophilus Ezenrane Ackah from the Western Region was adjudged the first runner up. 

He took home a high horsepower tractor head, trailer, a set of implements, and a boom sprayer.

His prize was sponsored by the Ghana Exim Bank.

The second runner up award was taken by Kwaku Yeboah Asumah from the Bono East Region.

His prize was an MF tractor head, trailer, and  set of implements. This was sponsored Stanbic Bank.

The awardees were honoured at the 39th National Farmers Day Celebration Awards Night held at the University of Mines and Technology Auditorium at Tarkwa in the Western Region on Friday night (Dec 1).

In a message read on her behalf, Madam Akortia thanked God for the award and pledged to invest the money in her work and other corporate activities.

The Vice President, Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia while handing over the prizes to the overall top three best farmers, said farmers and the agriculture sector are the cornerstones of the Ghanaian economy, hence congratulated them for their sacrifices in feeding the nation.

Dr. Bawumia added that Farmers Day must remind us of the goal of addressing food security.

“As we celebrate our heroic farmers and Co-actors in the agricultural value chain today, Farmers Day must be an occasion to remind ourselves that the new dynamics call for new strategies to realise our goals of food security, resilience, job creation, poverty reduction and prosperity”, he said.

He added that the government by way of strategy has since 2017 through the Planting for Food and Jobs initiative managed to address the threats to food security which calls for more.

“Ghana’s experience in the agricultural front demonstrates the government’s unwavering commitment to transform the sector and place it on a sound footing of accelerated development. These efforts that the government has put in since 2017 have yielded notable success through the flagship programme, planting for food and jobs.

“When you look at average growth rate of Ghana’s agricultural sector between 2013-2016 was 2.9%, but when we implemented the PFJ in 2017, the average growth rate between 2017 to 2022 was 6%. The significant growth rate enhance school food security, increases job opportunities and and supports emerging industries with raw materials“, he noted.

The Minister for Food and Agriculture, Bryan Acheampong on his part said the government is putting in place the right measures to sustain the gains made in the agricultural sector