Some dry season farmers in the Bongo District have raised concerns about the government’s Planting for Food and Jobs Phase 2.0 (PFJ 2.0), stating that the government has failed to fulfill its pledge to find buyers for their products.
Mr. Adabooro Bismarck Awine, a dry season vegetable farmer in the Bongo District, noted that as part of the program last year, the government provided farmers with seeds, fertilizer, and other farming inputs. According to him, the government had promised to find buyers for their produce, but when harvest time came, it did not fulfill this promise, which significantly affected him.
He said, “We are dry season vegetable farmers. Our season started around November last year. When we began, they provided us with seeds, fertilizer, and other inputs. They told us to farm, and they would find buyers for the produce when it was ready. The seeds were good and yielded plenty, but the produce perished quickly. I grew tomatoes and peppers on one and a half acres. When my produce was ready, we contacted the agricultural director, who told us we needed to find buyers ourselves. As a result, we were unable to sell our produce. Even now, I cannot repay all the inputs they provided. I will request to pay half this year, and once I farm and harvest this year, I will settle the remainder.”
Mr. Awine Norbert Asampana, another dry season vegetable farmer, indicated that the few buyers who came to purchase their produce complained that the tomatoes perished too quickly, which prevented them from transporting them down South.
“One truck came to our farm to buy tomatoes, but when the driver saw our produce, he said the tomatoes would not withstand the transport conditions to the South because they would spoil on the way. After that, no other trucks showed interest in buying our produce. They often bypass us and go to Burkina Faso to purchase from them. They claimed our farms were not large enough to fill a truck load of tomatoes, but that was not true. All the farmers in our area had at least 10 acres, and the harvest was almost ready for all of us. The issue was that the seeds did not produce tomatoes that could last for a reasonable time before spoiling.”
He continued, “The government should improve the seeds and keep their promise to find buyers. If they cannot secure buyers, they should inform us from the beginning so we can make alternative plans for selling our produce.”
These comments were made during their appearance on the Trade Talks show on A1 Radio.
Trade Talks is a program funded by Global Affairs Canada through Canadian Feed the Children under the SHINE project. It aims to advocate for government policies that support the productive poor in creating and managing viable business enterprises around indigenous livelihoods for sustained poverty reduction and wealth creation.
Source: A1Radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Ghana
