Create a common market for farmers in Northern Ghana

Tamale, July 23, GNA - Participants, at a seminar on the Savanna Accelerated Development Authority, (SADA) have advocated the creation of a common market for farmers in Northern Ghana to ensure ready market for their produce.

They expressed concern that the anticipated rise in the production of food stuffs due to the implementation of the SADA may lead to a glut on the market if a ready market was not created for the sale of their produce.

The participants also called for capacity building and training on processing of farm produce as well as the adequate training of farmers in the packaging and the preservation of their farm products for a better market.

The participants, who were made up of a network of Community Based Organisations, (CBOs) and the School for Life (SFl) and Satellite Youth Centre committees made these suggestions at an advocacy seminar organised by the Empowerment for Life (E4L), on Friday.

It was under the auspices of the Ghana Developing Communities Association (GDCA) in Tamale.

They further called for the creation of more agro-processing industries in Northern Ghana while government with access roads to the farming communities to facilitate the carting of foodstuffs from the rural areas to the urban centers.

Madam Mariam Adam, the GDCA/LOM Gender Field Officer, who gave a presentation on SADA, said although the objectives of the programme were laudable, if there was no be peace in the three northern regions its implementation would not yield any meaningful results and the people would continue to lag behind in development.

She also stressed the need for CBOs and other Civil Society Organisations to be in the forefront of educating the people on the need for peace to ensure that the SADA succeeded.