Every year on the first Friday in December, Ghana celebrates National Farmer’s Day – an event that honours that country’s farmers, and their efforts to improve and advance Ghana’s agricultural sector.
Ghana is host to a variety of crops: cocoa, mango, banana, coconut, palm oil, yams and rubber plants, to name a few. Regrettably, many farmers see significant post-harvest losses because they don’t have a quick way of transporting their produce to markets for sale.
Surrounded by farming villages in Ghana’s hilly, remote interior, Kinross Chirano has a particular connection with farming. To support the 30th Anniversary of National Farmer’s Day, Chirano donated competition prizes, sponsored a dinner for more than 200 people, and one of our own employees was presented with an award.
In an effort to help four families transport their crops to market, this year Chirano donated four motorized transport vehicles: one was awarded as a top prize to the Best Farmer in the Bibiani-Anhwiaso-Bekwai District (located in the western part of Ghana, near our operations), one was donated to the Sefwi Wiawso College of Education (a school that trains teachers), and another was presented to the Sefwi Wiawso Municipal Assembly – a municipality near Chirano that will host local farming celebrations early in 2015.
“I am honoured to win this award,” said 50-year-old Anthony Twum Barima, the local community member who was named Best District Farmer. “This vehicle will help transform my agricultural business. It will make the movement of my goods much easier, and help me get them to the market for sale.”
Anthony Twum Barim, winner of the Best District Farmer Award, pictured with the vehicle prize donated by Kinross Chirano
Chirano was also proud to see one of its own receive a National Farmer’s Day Award.
Anthony (Tony) Arthur-Gyan (Inventory Officer, Chirano Finance), was nominated by Ghana’s Ministry of Food & Agriculture for his efforts to grow rubber trees in the Sefwi area. He also has a large-scale plantain* crop.
Rubber is a new and important cash crop that is being widely encouraged in Ghana, with a goal to diversifying the country’s agricultural sector and reducing its dependence on cocoa. Tony took a chance on rubber trees and was named this year’s Most Motivating Farmer.
“I am happy to have been presented with such an award,” said Tony. “It will motivate me to do even more in the future!”
Anthony (Tony) Arthur-Gyan (Inventory Officer, Chirano Finance) accepts his National Farmer’s Day Award
*Plantains are in the same family as bananas, but are larger in size, higher in starch, and lower in sugar content. They are popular in tropical regions and are often cooked before being eaten.
