The President of the Ghana National Cocoa Farmers Association (GNACOFA), Stephenson Anane Boateng, has strongly asserted that the annual National Farmers Day Celebration lacks integrity, credibility, and is heavily politicised.
Speaking in an interview on Nyankonton Mu Nsem on Rainbow Radio 87.5FM, Mr Anane Boateng expressed deep concern that the selection process for award recipients is opaque and has been hijacked by politicians to serve their parochial interests.
Mr Anane Boateng lamented that successive governments have failed to prioritise and implement policies that could genuinely transform the lives of farmers.
”Government after government, farmers have been deceived. They make huge promises and fail to deliver on them,” he stated. He criticised the lack of consultation with farmers and their associations when drafting agricultural policy, noting that the policies implemented over the years have not yielded tangible improvements in the welfare of farmers.
”So if you ask me, I would boldly state that these leaders don’t take farmers seriously,” he said.
Specifically addressing the awards ceremony, the GNACOFA President contended that genuine farmers are consistently sidelined in favour of individuals who are politically affiliated or known to those in power.
He highlighted a major procedural deficit, stating that farmer associations are excluded from the selection process.
”We have Farmer Associations in Ghana, but when winners are being selected for the ceremony, we are not consulted… When it comes to the farmers’ awards ceremony, we don’t know how these winners are selected, the Association they belong to, [or] the criteria used in selecting them. Consequently, the annual awards ceremony has been characterised by politics and unfair processes. This is not a new phenomenon; it has persisted for years.”
He further alleged that the awards ceremony has devolved into a mere formality used by certain public officers to misappropriate state funds under the guise of an official event.
Mr. Anane Boateng also targeted the previous administration regarding the promised Cocoa Farmers Pension Scheme, unequivocally describing it as a scam.
He noted that while the government under former President Akufo-Addo claimed to have launched the scheme, which was designed to guarantee retirement benefits for over 1.5 million cocoa farmers through contributions, not a single cocoa farmer is currently receiving a pension.
He asserted that the promised scheme was never fully implemented.
