The Akyɛmpimhene of the Juaben Traditional Area in the Ashanti Region, Oheneba Yaw Sarpong Siriboe I, has been crowned ‘2022 Overall National Best Farmer’ at the 38th national Farmers’ Day celebration held at Koforidua in the Eastern Region.
The trained engineer, supply chain manager and agronomist – who is known in private life as Nana Yaw Sarpong Siriboe – with this latest recognition becomes the third-youngest person at age 43 years to win the Overall National Best Farmer award.
Also, he is now the youngest and seventh person from the Ashanti Region to be given the ultimate farmers’ award and has been farming for the past 22 years.
Oheneba Yaw Sarpong Siriboe I owns Siriboe Farm Limited with its head-office located at Juaben in the Juaben Municipality of the Ashanti Region, along with other farming sites at Ejura in the Sekyere Oduamasi district and Akokoa in the Attebubu Amantin district.
Operations of the farm, which employs some 145 workers comprising 20 full-time employees and 125 casual employees, run across the entire agricultural value chain – from nurseries, hatcheries, mechanised field operations, crops and livestock production, aquaculture (fish), apiculture (bees), vermiculture (worms), mushroom-farming, palm weevil larvae (akokono) farming, processing, packaging and distribution.
The highly-diversified farm also specifically has crop enterprises covering the broad areas of grains and cereals (maize, rice, soybean and cowpea) and vegetables (okro, tomatoes, cucumber, cabbage, carrot, sweet pepper).
It also has plantation crops including mango, cashew, oil palm and cocoa, with timber species of Teak, Mahogany, Lyceria trees (Oframo), and others such as avocado pear, sugarcane, pineapple, watermelon, cocoyam and mushrooms.
The livestock enterprises consist of large ruminants (cattle), small ruminants (sheep and goats), local and exotic birds, pigs, guinea-fowl, pigeons, turkeys, ostriches, quail, geese, rabbits, guinea pigs, grass-cutters, snails, palm weevil larvae (akokono), ducks and beehives.
Siriboe Farms also includes six – eight fish ponds stocked with catfish, tilapia and heriotics among others.
Before his recognition as 2022 Overall National Best Farmer, Oheneba Yaw Sarpong Siriboe I was the 1st Municipality Best Farmer, Ejusu Juaben Municipality in 2014, and the 1st Regional Oil Palm Farmer, Ashanti Region in 2015.
Also, in 2016 he was adjudged the 1st Runner Up – Overall Best Farmer in the Ashanti Region and the 2019 1st Runner-Up – Overall National Best Farmer.
Speaking at the ceremony, President Nana Akufo-Addo noted that value addition as a means of accelerating the development of agriculture is one of the logical strategies for ensuring food security.
To this end, he said, since 2017 strategic interventions in the agriculture sector have emphasised value addition through implementation of the One District-One Factory flagship programme by government.
The president, among others, said agriculture will continue to remain a top priority of government, while pointing to investments made in the sector so far as evidence.
Brief background
Oheneba Yaw Sarpong Siriboe I, known in private life as Nana Yaw Sarpong Siriboe, was born in 1979 and holds a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) in Logistics and Supply Chain Option from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).
He is currently the Supply Chain Manager for Juaben Oil Mills and CEO of Siriboe Farms.
Also, he serves on several management boards including the Juaben Rural Bank, the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research-Oil Palm Research Institute (CSIR-OPRI), and is a member of the Business Advisory Committee, Business Resource Centre (BRC) at the Sekyere District Assembly.
