The National President of the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana, Wepia Awal Adugwala, has welcomed the decision by President John Mahama to nominate John Dumelo as Deputy Minister-Designate for Food and Agriculture.
President John Dramani Mahama, on Wednesday, February 5, 2025, named John Setor Dumelo as the Deputy Minister-Designate for Food and Agriculture.
Speaking in an interview with Citi News, Wepia Awal Adugwala emphasized that they have always advocated for the ministry to be headed by individuals with direct experience in the industry, adding that John Dumelo, being a farmer, understands the challenges they face.
“We have always advocated that those who will be at the ministry should be people who have firsthand information about the challenges that farmers are facing. So, we want to believe that with he himself (John Dumelo) being a farmer, he understands the difficulties the farmers are facing,” he argued.
According to the association, Dumelo’s youthful nature will attract more young people to agriculture.
“…looking at his youthful nature, we’ll expect that policies should be implemented to attract the youth to agriculture, leveraging technology to ensure that 21st-century farming becomes much easier and more productive for the youth of this country.”
He also highlighted that John Dumelo is well-informed and has the experience to implement President Mahama’s 24-hour economy policy in the agriculture sector by empowering smallholder farmers to produce enough raw materials to feed the agro-based industry.