(Y) 50% Of Plantain Harvested Left To Rot Every Week 8-) About fifty percent of plantain cultivated in Asante Akyem Agogo area of the Ashanti region goes waste. Farmers in the district produce between fifty to seventy trucks of plantain every week, but lack of storage facilities is militating against the food production efforts. Bad roads, coupled with non-availability of ready market are among challenges contributing to what has become a perennial problem for the farmers. The farmers have had to sell their farm produce at cheaper prices while some get rotten. Obaa Abena Fosua is a farmer who owns 80 acres of land. She has devoted 10 acres for watermelons and cultivates plantain on the rest. She explained the frustration and experience of her fellow farmers to Luv Biz on our visit. “Now the Plantain business is bad. We can’t sell even half of what we produce. We don’t have ready market for our production so they end up rotten”. Because the roads are bad, the farmers engage tractors to cart their farm produce from the farm to the town. A trip cost Ghc600. As expensive as it is, these farmers are left with no choice but to employ the services of these tractors. “Paying Ghc600 for a trip is too expensive and drains us. We are compelled to engage them because the KIA trucks can’t ply the deplorable route,” Abena reveals. “Russia Park” is the name of an open place where market women display their wares. At the time of visit, fingers of plantain had been arranged everywhere. Abena is worried that often more than half of the heaped plantains don’t get sold. They are left at the mercy of the weather for weeks, hence get rotten and some sold at unreasonably cheaper prices. “A bag of plantain is now Ghc60. How much will I pay my labourers? It is difficult to offset all these expenses,” she passionately recounts and adds the farmers need help. Deputy Agriculture Director for Asante Akyem Agogo, Felix Sackietey has called on investors to come to the rescue of farmers. The presence of an agro-processing factory, according him, is critical in the area to reduce the incidence of post-harvest plantain losses. Farmers and other stakeholders have been meeting at Asante Akyem Agogo to deliberate on the state of agriculture in the region. It was organised by Inform Ghana, a Star Ghana funded project which seeks to ease information sharing. The group collaborates with civil society organizations and the media to establish an online platform for information exchange. Project manager of Inform Ghana, Nehemiah Atiga tells Luv News improved media reportage on agriculture is expected through an online information exchange. This should promote informed citizen engagement, advocacy and their ability to hold duty bearers accountable at the end of the day. “Quality research is focused to build capacity for data producers (CSOs) and data consumers (Media) to share, assess and utilize quality information on socio-economic and governance issues”, he says. Read Article Comment: Re: 50% of plantain harvested goes to waste weekly Author: EZEKIEL Date: 2014-11-02 10:53:38 Comment to: 50% of plantain harvested goes to waste weekly Many a time, it is just IRRITATING reading News about our STUPIDITY in Ghana......especially of OUR LEADERS!! NOTHING is done for the Nation!After 57 yrs.of independence,WHY CANT govt AFTER govt see the SENSE and URGENCY in at LEAST ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE to the Agric areas ??? We IMPORT foods we DONT CULTIVATE and WHAT WE CULTIVATE,we leave to ROT!!! Blackman, why are we so DAFT????? ghanaweb/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=333113&comment=11026975#com
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 14:38:43 +0000
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