Dry season farming will continue to cultivate hope for many farmers in the Upper East Region.
Farmers who sometimes suffer post-harvest losses during the rainy season bank their hopes on tomatoes, pepper and other vegetable crops to recoup their losses.
Osman Azeko, is one of such farmers. He farms tomatoes and has begun harvesting five acres of tomatoes farm in Zaare, a community in the Bolgatanga Municipality.
“This year the market is good. A crate of tomatoes is going for Gh700.00. And I’m harvesting closed to 30 crates today. In two days, time I will harvest more. I want my residents to know that we are revamping the tomatoes business. So, they should join me next year”, he said.
Osman Azeko, Farmer.
Mr Azeko and his colleague farmers numbering up to 85 have vowed to revamp tomatoes production in the region.
In the 90s, the region was noted as the hub of tomatoes production which gave birth to the Pwalugu Tomatoes Factory known as Northern Star Tomato Processing Factory.
But certain challenges including inadequate water supply for farmers, disease infestation of crops, and lack of fertilizer drowned many farmers, at the time, out of business. Since then the region and Ghana as a whole has been depending heavily on Burkina Faso for tomatoes.
Impressed by the effort of the farmers, the Upper East Regional Minister, Stephen Yakubu vowed to invest evenly in the sector.
Upper East Regional Minister, Stephen Yakubu
He also called on the Regional Director of Agriculture to set aside funds for the farmers to help avoid the challenges with fertilizer acquisition.
Francis Ennor, Director of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in the Upper East Region also encouraged the farmers to start thinking of organic farming as means of staying in business.
He said they should not only rely on inorganic fertilizers but they should begin looking at how they can channel their efforts to sustaining organic cropping as that will help them minimize cost and maximize profit.
Water, fertilizers and disease infestations of their crops, according to the Bolgatanga Municipal Chief Executive, Moses Asanga said are matters that his outfit will be working closely with the Agric director to ending them.
Rex Asanga, MCE for Bolgatanga
Mr Rex Asanga also added that he will collaborate with other partners in Agric to realize the supply of mechanised boreholes to the farmers as that will be a step in the right direction.
A1radioonline.com|101.1 MHz|Moses Apiah|Bolgatanga|Ghana
