Bushfire destroys NPP Chairman’s 200-acre mango plantation

Over 200-acre mango plantation belonging to Constituency Chairman of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) in Wenchi who is also Chief Executive Officer(CEO) of the Botim Farms has been destroyed by bushfire at Tainso in the Tain District of the Bono Region, MyNewsGh.com reports.

A distraught Mr Yaw Gyan told MyNewsGh.com that the 300-acre mango plantation which is nine years old had over 200 acres burnt completely estimated at several hundreds of thousands of Ghana Cedis.

“After harvesting I have invested about one billion old Ghana cedis into the farm but fire destroyed over 200 acres of the plantation” he lamented.

Mr Yaw Gyan is appealing for support from government to enable him bounce back considering how he heavily relied on the farm to cater for his family.

SO1 Nelson Ofori of Wenchi Municipal office of the Ghana National Fire Service(GNFS) attributed the cause of the fire to the carelessness in the handling of fire by some hunters who operate around the area.

He called for stringent measures in dealing with the situation head-on and also called for severe punishment for fire offenders to serve as a deterrent to others.

According to him, the fire started from a nearby village before spreading as a result of the wind towards the mango plantation and burnt thousands of the mango trees.

The GNFS official appealed to the Municipal and District Chief Executives and Police commanders in the area to enforce laws that will totally ban bushfires and also help arrest fire perpetrators.

“The fire overwhelmed workers of the farm. We managed to protect some part of the farm from the fire. There is the need to be cautious about how we deal with fire and it mostly fire disasters occur in February. The owner has incurred several losses as a result of the carelessness of hunters. I wish to appeal to government to impose deterring sanctions on hunters who set people’s farms on fire just because of rats”, he demanded.