Dry Season Farming is making enormous progress in the lives of farmers in the Gambibgo community ,a suburb of the Bolgatanga East District in the Upper East Region.
Majority of these farmers in that enclave of the region are the productive class of the youth.
The Farmers are into the cultivation of crops such as pepper, tomato, and legumes.
According to these small scale farmers who are drawing their water sources from dugouts and river springs ,some youth in the area are forced to migrate to southern Ghana because of employment challenges.
They are also claiming that the situation has led unemployed youths to engage in nefarious acts and other social vices such as robbery, pilfering and drug abuse.
Agongo Roland Atia, a tomatoes farmer, explained to A1 News he has been able fend for his family and even paid his fees with proceeds from the farm in his days at family Senior High School.
“Through farming, I was able to complete my SSS education. I went to college through the support I had from farming and not only that, I’ working with the Ghana Water Company and still do farming.”
Akolgo David, a pepper farmer said “ I was able to buy my taxi through pepper farming. Yes, challenges will always come like issues of fertilizers and sometimes the strange disease that usually attacks the crops, but all in all, profits usually come.”
Azure Timothy, a Teacher by profession and an Okro Farmer however observed that ,if majority of the youth can be sensitized by authorities on the lucrative nature of farming, it will help change their orientation about white collar jobs in the country.
Meanwhile,District Best Farmer for 2019 in the Bolgatanga East District, Hon. Atere Ayinbila, has appealed to the government to add dry season farming into the Planting for Food and Jobs policy in order to address challenges of farmers involved in that area.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHZ|Moses Apiah
