Leave our lands alone, Tamale vegetable growers cry

Vegetable farmers in the Northern Region have expressed concern over rampant acquisition of green belts in the Tamale metropolis.

The vegetable farmers say government needs to intervene as they are losing their farm lands, and by extension their means of livelihood.

Demarcations can be seen in most vegetable farms in the Tamale metropolis, which are normally lowland areas and sometimes flooded during rainy seasons.

However, developers are not perturbed about the consequences of flooding as they continue to take over the farmlands.

The vegetable farmers are currently holding discussions with the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly and its development partners to assist them in rehabilitating some dams including the one behind Tamale Water Works to improve vegetable cultivation.

Mr. Salifu Abdul-Karim, Chairman of the Vegetable Farmers Association in the Northern Region, appealed for lands that are earmarked as green belts to be left as such and not taken over by developers.

The chairman appealed to chiefs in the region to consider the livelihoods vegetable farming supports, and desist from selling the lands to developers.

The farmers are also appealing for government to construct more dams to irrigate vegetables in the region.

Mr. Abdul-Karim said it is very difficult to get water in the dry season to water their crops, thereby compelling some of them to use pipe-borne water which is very expensive.