Senior Lecturer at the University of Cape Coast’s Department of Crop Science, Dr. Frank Ackah, has called for a review of Ghana’s Best Farmer Awards to make the process more inclusive, transparent, and community driven.
According to him, the current award system tends to favour individuals with financial power and political connections rather than those who have dedicated their lives to farming and contributed directly to community development.
“We keep rewarding the rich professional who buys land and calls himself a farmer, while the ordinary man and woman who have farmed for thirty years with their bare hands get ignored,” Dr. Ackah said in an interview with The High Street Journal.
He proposed that the selection of award winners should begin from the community level, where farmers know one another’s contributions, consistency, and impact. Local assemblies, he said, could work with farmer associations to nominate and vote for deserving individuals before the process advances to district and regional stages.
Dr. Ackah noted that decentralising the award process would not only promote fairness but also restore dignity and motivation among smallholder farmers, the true backbone of Ghana’s food security.
“If communities are allowed to identify their own best farmers, it will eliminate bias, reduce political interference, and give recognition to the people actually feeding the nation,” he added.
The Crop Science lecturer further criticised what he described as “elitism in agriculture recognition,” where awards have become symbols of prestige rather than appreciation for lifelong commitment to farming.
He urged policymakers and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to redesign the scheme to highlight sustainability, innovation, and community impact rather than sheer farm size or investment capital.
Dr. Ackah’s comments come ahead of this year’s National Farmers’ Day celebrations, set for December, where top-performing farmers across the country are expected to be honoured.
His call adds to growing public discussion on how Ghana can better celebrate the everyday farmer whose resilience sustains rural economies and national food production.
