Cashew farmers appeal for marketing company

Nkoranza (B/A), Nov. 19, (Credit Adu Simon) GNA- Nana Kwadwo Baafour Osei, a leading cashew farmer in the Nkoranza district, has urged the government to establish a marketing company to enable the crop to have a stable price.

He expressed his concern about how private businesses and companies determine prices for the farmers every crop season. Nana Osei was briefing the Ghana News Agency on the activities of the cashew farmers and the challenges facing them. He said in 1983 when a bushfire destroyed the forests and swept away large tracts of cocoa farms, a number of people entered into cashew production because the crop grows well in the grassland. The cocoa farmers who veered into cashew cultivation have improved their living conditions, he added. Nana Osei said the absence of a state agency to deal directly with them was a major challenge, especially during the harvesting of the crop.

He commended the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) for supporting the farmers, which he said, had encouraged most of the farmers to continue with the cashew production. Nana Osei appealed to the government to extend incentives such as scholarship packages and the free mass spraying exercise given to cocoa farmers to the cashew industry. He reminded the farmers of the impending harmattan season and the probability of bushfires and advised them to prepare fire belts around their farms.