Planting for Foods and Jobs program headed for failure - Peasant famers lament

The Planting for food and jobs program is headed for failure if the menace involving the herdsmen is not resolved immediately, Chairman of the Peasant farmers association Kwahu East District Yaw Owusu Addo noted.

He complained that this is because, herdsmen are destroying farms belonging to the locals.

He revealed that, there are 52,800 peasant farmers in the Kwahu East district, representing 60% of the entire population in the district.

“Complaints were received from 42,000 of our members in 2017 in connection with damages caused by cattle. An average farm size of our members is 1.8 acres, therefore 75,600 acres of cultivated farms were destroyed by cattle in 2017.

“Crops that were destroyed include maize, cassava, tomatoes, groundnut and plantain. The average cost of production of these crops is GHS 1,200 per acre of land. This means our members lost GHS90,720,000 in the year 2017,” he said.

He added: “The Planting for Food & Jobs will fail if the government does not deal with the Fulani menace.”

In a press statement issued earlier, he noted that: “A total of 1,552 of our members had to desert their communities due to the activities of criminal herdsmen, which made nine communities turn into ghost towns in 2017. The Association, therefore, demands a compensation of GHS10,000 per each farmer for resettlement, and that makes the total cost GHS15, 520,000.

“A total of 13 houses in two communities were set ablaze by unscrupulous herdsmen in 2017. The Peasant farmers, therefore, demand an average cost of GHS30, 000 per house, making the total GHS 390, 000. A total of 17 people were shot by herdsmen in 2017. Only seven people survived but with degrees of serious injury. The Association demands GHS 50,000 to be paid to each of the families of the dead, and GHS 30,000 per each of the injured persons. That makes the total compensation GHS 710,000.

“A total of five women on record were raped by criminal herdsmen in 2017. The Association demands a compensation of GHS30, 000 for each of the women for the psychological trauma caused. We, therefore, demand a total of GHS150,000.”