Okyereko (C/R), Oct. 25, GNA - The Ghana Trade and Livelihood Coalition (GTLC), a nation-wide advocacy group of small-scale farmers have said, the best way for the government to reward farmers is to formulate and implement policies that guarantee the livelihood of small-scale farmers.

At the launch of its first Farmers Week celebration on Wednesday at Okyereko, the Coalition said it was very apprehensive about the present trend of rewarding few hard working farmers on National Farmer's day with cutlasses, household electrical equipment, tractors and vehicles, saying, these would not help solve the myriad of problems faced by farmers.

"The best way to reward farmers is for government to guarantee access to their national markets, to be given targeted investment, to ensure the strict implementation of policies, have access to favourable credit facilities and support farmers to add value to their produce to be competitive on the Ghanaian market," Mr. Ibrahim Akalbila, coordinator of the Coalition told farmers at the launch of the week. The Coalition said the Week, to be marked annually, will precede the National Farmers Day celebration and would be used to draw attention to factors militating against peasant farmers and to impress on government to institute a better reward system for small scale farmers. Farmers from Asutuare, Afife, Ashaiman and other communities attended the durbar.

Mr. Akalbila called on government to use the Farmer's Day as a platform to make policy statements that favour farmers at large, rather than reward a few.

While admitting that government alone could not solve the problems of farmers, he said the onus still rested on government to ensure that the environment within which the farmers operated was not detrimental to their development.

Mr. Akalbila said, given the right environment and better economic assistance, the Ghanaian small-scale farmers could contribute positively to the country's economic development.

He urged farmers and producers to collaborate to channel their grievances to government to enable them to make the difference in their lives.

Mr. Daleep Mukarje, Christian Aid Director, said, while debt cancellation and aid were important, they could not lift people out of poverty, unless government took bold and pragmatic initiatives that enhanced the fortunes of the productive sectors of the economy. In this direction, he said, Ghana must be left to make free choices that suited her development instead of being forced to adopt policies that were inimical to her development. Mr. Mukarje asked developed countries to rethink their polices that were inimical to the growth of developing countries, especially those relating to opening up of their markets to goods from the disadvantaged economies.

Dr. Fred Deegbe, General Secretary Christian Council of Ghana, who chaired the function, told farmers not to keep their sufferings to themselves and urged them to let the politicians know their problems. He asked them to endeavour to save part of the money their make during bumper harvest and also contribute to the social security scheme to guarantee themselves some income during their old age when they would be unable to work on the farm.

Farmers who spoke at the durbar drew attention to the high level of interest rates on loans and imported rice products, which were making it difficult for them to compete and survive.

Mr. Emmanuel Amoak, Vice-President of Okyereko Rice Farmers' Cooperative said access to market and credit facilities remained the greatest challenges facing the farmers in the community. He said they were unable to get market for the local rice that they produced because of cheap imported rice.

Mr. Amoak said, through the assistance of the Japanese government the Okyereko and Ashaiman Cooperatives now benefit from a 300 million cedis revolving fund.

However, he said, the ability of farmers to continuously receive the assistance depended on how quick they sold their pile-up stocks.