The African Investment Climate Research (AFRICRES) in partnership with the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and other farmer organizations in Africa would honour successful farmer groups at an awards event on November 28, in Accra.

The awards are aimed at showcasing and rewarding successful Farmer Organizations (FOs) in Africa and acknowledge the vital role these organizations have played in promoting sustainable agriculture on the African continent.

Professor Nicholas Biekpe, Managing Director of AFRICRES speaking at the launch of the 2013 Africa Farmer of the Year Award (AFOYA) in Accra stated that farmers continued to play a key role in achieving food security in Africa and therefore deserved recognition.

This year’s event would honour farmer groups in five main categories such as governance, accountability and professional capacity, income diversity, female and youth participation, and advocacy and market access.

At the end of the event, an overall Africa FO of the year would be crowned among five sector winners. The winners would each receive prizes for the various sectors.

Prof Biekpe noted that AFRICRES did a lot profiling to check how to help build the capacity of small holder farmers to ensure food sufficiency in Africa. He said currently Africa had a different and improvement structured farming system which did not exist many years ago.

He called for support for the various farmer groups on the continent in order to enable them compete with farmers from other parts of the world. Mr Fadel Ndiame, Lead Coordinator of AGRA’s Farmer Organization Support Centre in Africa (FOSCA) said the awards ceremony was to motivate farmer groups to continue to work towards food sufficiency.

He expressed the commitment of key stakeholders in the agricultural value chain, including AGRA and AFRICRES in promoting sustainable agriculture in Africa.