Bad roads impede farming activities in Bono East Region

The bad road network in the Bono East Region continue to hamper farming activities, compelling some farmers to abandon their farms for other means of survival.

The trend has affected food prices in the area.

Although the region is known to be one of the country’s key food baskets, its farmers have persistently complained bitterly about post-harvest losses, as most of their productions are often left on the farm to rot due to poor accessibility of road networks.

A survey conducted by the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in some major farming communities including Atebubu-Amantin, Prang, Kwame-Danso, Techiman North and South, Kintampo North and South and Nkoranza, revealed that about 45 to 65 per cent of farmers in the Bono East Region continued to suffer the same predicament.

The situation, which had not been attended to for a long time was gradually creating food insecurity which may impede the country’s progress in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The road system at Tadieso, Wuraso, Aworopata, Akisimaso and Bamiri all in the Techiman South, established the plight of farmers who use the bad roads, making it difficult to get vehicles to transport their products to the market.

In the area of Krabonso and Jema communities in the Kintampo South District, Bomini, Busunya and other communities in the Nkoranza North district were also not left out in the situation as they also find it very difficult to send heavy agricultural equipment to the farms due to bad road networks.

Some of the farmers interviewed in the Tadieso community told the GNA that they had cultivated varieties of food crops ranging from vegetables to tubers on a vast land but did not have access to the market due to the bad road network in the area.

“We are not able to send our produce from the farms due to bad roads and it is affecting our livelihood,” they stated.

At Konkonti a farming community in the Techiman North district, a cocoa and yam farmer, Mr Awini Atongo, lamented about the lack of Agricultural Extension officers to supervise and teach new farming methods, to increase productivity.

He said this had been a challenge to farmers in the area over the years.

He said quality healthcare services to farmers and their dependents had been another worrying issue, as health workers were not able to access the road to the area to provide healthcare to the people.

Opoku Nyame, the District Chief Executive of Kintampo South Assembly, confirmed the situation to the GNA and said the government had initiated plans to address such road networks, indicating that most of the roads in these farming communities, had been given the needed attention for reshaping.