Some farmers at Anum in the Eastern Region have expressed worry over the lack of resources and farm inputs to enhance their farming activities.
The lack of resources have affected the farmers' ability to hire labour, buy fertilizers and farm inputs, affecting their ability to cultivate large acres of farmlands and reap maximum yields.
The farmers who largely cultivate maize, cassava, and plantain, lament that the situation continues to result in very low yield and income levels, adding that they don’t receive support from government.
According to them, their worsening condition was disturbing, and appealed to government to help them with the needed resources as they contribute greatly to the food basket of the country and therefore poor harvest will affect food prices.
Fifty-six-year-old Asante Grace has been cultivating 5 and a half acres of cassava, plantain, and maize for many years.
“I don’t have money to plow my farm, I don’t have money to buy fertilizers. I can cultivate about 10 acres of farmland but I don’t have the resources to,” said auntie Grace.
Though she undertakes the weeding by herself, she employs some labour to supplement her efforts. She said, “I hire labour and also do the weeding myself. The labour clears the main bush then after that I do the planting, I weed by myself after the crops have germinated.”
These difficulties, according to the farmer, limit her farming activities. According to her, these challenges “derail our farming activities, pests hide in the crops and destroy it. You could weed about 5 acres and not get anything from it.”
She, therefore, appealed to the government to give the farmers loans, fertilizers, cutlasses, and other farm inputs to enhance their work.
Asafoatse Kofi Osae is another farmer with several acres of farmlands. According to him, their activities are limited due to lack of capital.
“Labour is a problem. If we had money, we can cultivate 20 or 30 acres. Due to the labour and financial constraints, we’re unable to cultivate the farms on the large scale,” he lamented.
Asafoatse Osae contends that they incur a lot of losses, harvesting very low yields of a fifth of their farmlands due to lack of funds to maintain their farms.
“You could cultivate 5 acres (of maize) and expect to harvest 10 bags from each acre but you won’t get it. Sometimes, you’re able to harvest proceeds from only an acre or two (out of the 5) and you run at a loss so we don’t make progress,” he complained.
According to him, weedicides are another problem for them and appealed for machines that can effectively weed the farms other than the weedicides.
The Asafoatse, therefore, appealed to the government to come to their assistance by adequately resourcing them to enable them to be more productive and also resource the extension agents to support them on credit basis.
Obeng Stephen who has also been in the farming business for the past 14 years also said the lack of adequate financial input to cultivate large acres of farmlands is a big problem for the farmers, adding that lack of access to capital is limiting their farming activities to very minimal levels and depriving them of the maximum yields that they deserve.
Watch video below.
Read Full Story
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Instagram
Google+
YouTube
LinkedIn
RSS