Farmers in parts of the Upper West Region have expressed worry that food could be in severe shortage in the Upper West Region following the insufficient amount of rain that farmers have got during the past few weeks.
The farmers say some of their crops have been stunted while others have died.
Speaking to GBC in Nandom, a farmer who doubles as the Director of Operations, at Tieme Ndo, a farmer based social enterprise, Moses Yanemengna said due to the delay and insufficient rain, most farmers, including himself have delayed in planting certain crops and may have lost out on the opportunity to do so.
“It is frustrating for me. I have not planted my soya bean or cowpea. I do not know what to do. Now, I have ploughed about 7 acres. I wanted to use that for both the soya bean and cowpea. The time for planting soya bean may be over so planting it now is a huge risk and I cannot plant cowpea on all the 7 acres because harvesting will be a challenge,” he lamented.
Mr Yanemengna said the situation has been compounded by the absence of subsidised fertilizer under government’s Planting for Food and Jobs programme. He said farmers now have to purchase fertilizers on the open markets at exorbitant prices.
Mr Yanemengna explained that before the shortage, 50 kilograms of the subsidized fertilizer retailed for just a little over a hundred cedis. But now, the same quantity of fertilizer in the open market is being sold for as much as 160ghc, a situation that puts serious financial burden on local farmers.
Mr Yanemengna called on the government to restructure the Planting for Food and Jobs Programme to ensure its sustainability.
Story filed by Mark Smith