Mr Emmanuel Sagoe, Gomoa West District Best Farmer for 2010, has expressed concern about the high rent charge by land owners for farming in the area.
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency at Gomoa Dunkwa in the Central Region on Saturday, Mr Sagoe said, the high rent charge was discouraging the youth from going into farming in the area.
He said land owners in the area had been charging as much as GH¢40.00 for a 30 by 30 yards plot of land for just one farming season.
Mr Sagoe said because of that farm hands had also increased their charge for weeding.
Mr Sagoe, who is the Gomoa West Constituency Vice Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), appealed to the Government to subsidize the cost of cutlasses and hoes, mostly used by farmers to make the prices affordable.
He again appealed to the Government to construct irrigation facilities for farmers in order to get water for their crops since they could not depend on the erratic weather.
He said that could also help the farmers to farm all year round.
The Gomoa West Best Farmer said to allow cassava farmers to add value to their produce, the Government must provide them with cassava dough pressures and cassava graters to enable them to process their produce into gari, which was in high demand in the country.
He called for financial support for farmers.
“A peasant farmer will be grateful if he or she is given GH¢200 for his or her farming activities,” he said.