New dawn for food futures
The futuristic vision of celebrating and empowering farmers and other agricultural workers across Ghana, uniquely initiated under the PNDC administration, led by Flt. Lt. J.J. Rawlings, in the mid-1980s, continues to deliver significant benefits. The 41st National Farmers’ Day (NFD), held on December 5, 2025, in Ho, has been widely regarded as one of the most impactful editions. From the moment the President of the Republic of Ghana, H.E. John Dramani Mahama, arrived at the grand durbar to his declaration of Ho as an ‘Oxygen City’, the atmosphere remained joyfully festive throughout. With the theme “Feed Ghana, Eat Ghana, Secure the Future,” this year’s award ceremony emphasised the importance of sustainable agrifood production for food sovereignty, shared growth, resilience, and green jobs.
A week-long series of exhibitions, well-coordinated by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), showcased innovations across irrigation, livestock, fisheries, digitalisation, and value addition. These exhibitions offered clear evidence that NFD has evolved from a mere celebration into a powerful public engagement platform for amplifying new farming achievements and policy discourses around modern, AI-aided, and climate-smart agriculture, as well as media encounters revealing multifaceted gaps, needing extra ‘political will’ and green investment attention.
Recognising Farming Excellence
Usually, the award ceremony goes with the giving of substantial prizes, including farming equipment, insurance packages, and a house or cash equivalent from the national to district levels. This year’s Overall National Best Farmer prize was won by Mr Abraham Kwaku Adusei from the Eastern Region of the Republic. He received an award package worth nearly USD 106,000 for his lifelong practice of sustainable, commercial, and diversified farming.
The University of Ghana (UG) outclassed other universities to become the National Best University in Practical Agriculture, recognising its contribution to research and sector-wide skill development. In a demonstration of private-sector alignment with government priorities, Stanbic Bank donated a new tractor to support MoFA’s mechanisation drives.
The policy optimism from political leadership and governance was exemplified. For example, the President, H.E. John Dramani Mahama, reasserted the government’s promise for radical agricultural reforms. He evidently pointed to a sharp reduction in food inflation, from 28.3% in January to 9.5% in October 2025, attributable to fresh policy-driven actions like improved seed and fertiliser distribution and tech-aided irrigation. While it remains unclear whether relocating the agribusiness unit from MoFA to the Ministry of Trade and Industry contributed to remarkable recent gains and progress, the momentum undoubtedly reflects the new reset policies.
The 2025 Edition Hugely Works Well
This year’s NFD intentionally focused on agrifood value-chain development, aligning strongly with the government’s ambition to reduce the national food import bill, boost locally led production and consumption, and promote systemic agricultural efficiency and transparency. The approach also supports targets under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement. NFD also motivated the youth to consider agriculture as a viable profession.
The active involvement of institutions such as UG, ADB, Stanbic Bank, AgriHouse, Sino-Machinery, and multiple financial organisations and development partners highlights a system-wide direction towards transformed agriculture. This multi-model strengthens the long-term sustainability of the NFD initiative, moving it beyond one-off awards toward strategic development.
Looking Ahead: Systemic Gaps and Policy Priorities
Despite national euphoria around the 41st NFD, Ghana’s overdependence on imported food remains a structural challenge. As such, meaningful improvement will require a systems rethinking method that ensures consistent implementation of integrated policies to expand access to microcredit for vulnerable farming households, mechanised tools, rural infrastructure (e.g., roads, storage, markets, etc.), and value addition facilities. The agrienergy systems must be greenly decarbonised. The women-led agroprocessing enterprises and youth-based agritech startups need financial recapitalisation. Equally vital is the need to scale up agri-innovations to reach smallholders, alongside proactively reassessing and responding to complex global polycrisis, risks, and threats likely to limit increased profitability, productivity, and sustainability. Post-harvest losses pose a serious risk too. In dry savannas of northern Ghana, where rainfall is erratically problematic, solar-powered sources for watering crops or animals are ideal. Without a broad-based adoption across different farm types, markets, and production systems, the maximum benefits of current reforms may not fully materialise to advance zero hunger or avert disaster-linked food shortages.
Besides extreme climate variability and persistent land pressures, mentoring and engaging young people is another critical factor. Practically reskilling youth capacity in climate resilience, digital literacy, and agri-entrepreneurship is essential for sustaining national food systems. In this regard, the Public Agricultural Colleges of Ghana (PACsG) — located at Ohawu, Kwadaso, Ejura, Pong-Tamale, and Damongo — remain significantly crucial. However, even as some high schools received certificates of recognition from the MoFA, the PACsG were controversially relegated in the 2025 NFD award storylines. This raises genuine concerns and has left both PACsG students and staff dispirited, especially since many of them still depend on infrastructure dating back to Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s regime. The inclusion of PACsG, the heart of training the country’s next generation manpower, in the upcoming government’s “School Agriculture Programme”, “Big Push Programme”, and subsequent farmers’ days is therefore strongly advocated. Just as the Ministry of Education annually honours teachers through the Ghana Education Service — celebrating Colleges of Education in the process — MoFA can elevate and strengthen its institutional reputation by prioritising, collaborating, and intentionally motivating its accredited PACsG during big spaces such as NFDs. Surely, these concerns or gaps are not new. Some assume cross-border features. However, the interconnectedness of recurring agricultural risks to different systems of environment/climate, technology, education, health, culture, and trade signals the urgency for systemic reforms and stronger public-private responses.
Conclusion
Successfully chaired by Torgbe Afede XIV, Agbogbomefia of the Asogli State, the 2025 NFD marked a strategic turning point to accelerate resetting the agri-innovation agenda of the country. By transforming agricultural value chains, renewing risk research, fine-tuning inclusivity, and adequately investing in farming-related sectors, Ghana is positioning itself for resilient and prosperous agrifood futures. With sustained policy support, especially for smallholder farmers, the reset agrifood vision of the government can translate into realistic and measurable national development gains, providing possible lessons for West Africa’s agriculture.