By Nicholas Osei-Wusu
The Bono East Regional Director of Agriculture, James Adu, has expressed optimism that, at full operation, the Farmers Service Centres project being implemented by government would reduce by about 80% the prevailing difficulties farmers go through before, during, and after production.
According to him, most large-scale farmers go through very difficult times accessing, particularly, tractor services during production. Similarly, harvesting and storage also present other challenges to farmers.
Mr Adu was speaking to the media on the fringes of a farmers’ forum at Kintampo in the Bono East Region, which was used to reorganize and reward some farmers.
A total of 49 farmers were rewarded for their outstanding production levels during the 2024 and 2025 farming seasons.
They were recognized for adhering to modern cultural practices as taught to them by agronomists from Oyster Agribusiness, which also supported their farming activities with grants, as well as a ready market for their produce.
The awards were in various categories such as Best Youth Farmer, Best PwD, Best Female Farmer, Best First-Year Farmer, Best Crop Yield, and Overall Best Farmer in each of the two years.
The Bono East Regional Director of Agriculture disclosed that, “last year, three of the 11 districts in the region experienced a maize glut. Usually, by March, they should have finished threshing, but there was no ready market. Some of the farmers are still storing their produce in their living rooms. So, when the Farmers Service Centres are operational, all these things would be a thing of the past. Until then, we’d continue to see things like these.”
Mr Adu commended Oyster Agribusiness for the enormous support it continues to offer farmers, especially providing a ready market and fair prices for their produce.
Edmond Aberifa Kandituo from Kyinya, who harvested 294 bags of sorghum, was adjudged the Overall Best Farmer for 2024, while Mohammed Ahmed won the Best Farmer prize for 2025.
The award winners received prizes ranging from tricycles, commonly called ‘Aboboyaa’, deep freezers, hand-held planters, sprayers, wheelchairs, tarpaulins, agrochemicals, and cutlasses to citations.
The Chief Executive Officer of Oyster Agribusiness, Madam Elizabeth Bedzikan, disclosed that her organization has already supported about 30,000 farmers and farmhands to improve their income while providing a ready market for their produce to avoid post-harvest losses.
“Beyond just our farmers, we have secondary job creation—that’s the people who assist our farmers on the farm. We have day workers. We have seasonal operations people who assist our farmers during harvesting. So all these are people who have benefited from Oyster in one way or another,” she said.
The 2024 Best Farmer, Edmond Aberifa Kandituo, told GBC that some farmers, including himself, are shifting from maize cultivation to sorghum production as a result of factors such as high cost of production and the lack of a ready market. He therefore lauded government for the implementation of the Farmers Service Centres.
He said, “I was a big-time maize farmer, but I shifted to sorghum production because of the huge post-harvest losses due to the lack of market. But Oyster Agribusiness gives us a ready market and fair prices for the produce. We expect the government to pursue the implementation of the Farmers Service Centres since it would address our challenges substantially,” he noted.
Oyster Agribusiness has been helping farmers in sorghum, millet, groundnut, cashew, and other crops and plans to extend the same support to farmers in poultry and other production within the agricultural sector.
