Women engaged in vegetable business in the Bolgatanga Municipality in the Upper East Region are not happy with the poor rainfall rate in the entire Municipality, saying the situation has rendered their green vegetable business stagnant.
In the past, rainfall period in Upper East Region, started from April or latest by May, and by these periods, sale of vegetables on Bolgatanga markets was competitive amongst these vegetables sellers.
Sadly, the year 2019 has been terribly different from the previous years due to the current climate change across the globe of which Ghana is part.
Today, on the Bolgatanga market, garden egg leaves popularly known as Kumvuru and Green vegetable known as Alaefi are now scares commodities unlike previous years. In 2018, the Upper East Regional Association of Vegetable Farmers organized a stakeholders meeting to find solution to their challenges and yet issues relating to climate change persist.
The Association has appealed to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to come to the aid of the vegetable farmers with irrigation systems to improve on their work, especially when the Upper East Region has a short rainy season.
The leadership of the Association disclosed that due to the challenges confronting members, many farmers have abandoned the trade in order not to pile up debt.
Vegetable production provides a promising economic opportunity for reducing rural poverty and unemployment in developing countries and is a key component of farm diversification strategies. Vegetables are grown worldwide in almost 200 countries. According to a world vegetable survey, 392 vegetable crops are cultivated worldwide.
Vegetable business cannot be successful without the availability of water within the farm or around and the government’s policy on one village one dam will do them a lot of good if it is well implemented.
Even though vegetable farmers are faced with so many challenges, many of them are willing to continue investing in their work, if government will put in place some measures to reduce their burden and the challenges.
Source: A1 radioonline.com | Ngamegbulam Chidozie Stephen | Ghana
