A watermelon vendor preparing the fruits for sale
Watermelon farmers at Sege and Korledo enclave, popularly known as Ada Junction on the Accra-Aflao high- way, season after season have been experiencing massive glut when it comes to the fruit, but sadly, they have not reap correspondently in monetary terms.
This year is no exception as the fruit lay rot due to absence of factory to process it into fruit juice for consumption when the commodity is scarce, for farmers to monetize their investments and labor after investing millions of Ghana cedis for the production of the highly recommended fruit.
Mr. Nathanial Aryeh, one of the poor and long-suffering watermelon farmers told the Free Press that he and other farmers spend Ghc 120 to plough an acre of land for the cultivation of the fruit. The farmers, this paper has established also employ farm hands for other farm operations spanning three months.
Due to the massive glut experienced this farming season, one watermelon, the size of a football is sold cheaply for Ghc 1 to Ghc 2 at the farm gate.
Truck loads of watermelon are seen plying the route to convey the fruit to big towns and cities where watermelons are in high demand and sold at higher prices than what pertains at the farm gate.
Despite the current low price at the farm gate, farmers are unable to sell all their watermelons in order to recoup their investment.
The alternative is that, after waiting for three days and there are no customers on sight, farmers abandon the fruits to rot, leaving customers to buy them at exorbitant prices.
The rotten spate of watermelon and tomatoes at Korledo and its environs bring the much touted President Akufo-Addo led New Patriotic Party Government vision of ‘One District, One Factory [ID1F] initiative into sharp focus and scrutiny.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry, this paper has established signed contracts with the China National Building Materials Corporation in Accra for the construction of 22 factories under the ‘One District, One Factory [ID1F] initiative.
The 22 Engineering Procurement and Construction contracts were signed between some Ghanaian business executive, selected district assemblies represented by the ministry and the Chinese contraction contractors. The projects, valued at US$400 million are to be sited in 22 districts across the 10 regions.
The 1D1F initiative is designed as a comprehensive programme for rural industrialization, involving the setting-up of at least one medium to large –scale factory or industrial enterprise in each of the administrative districts of Ghana, based on the natural resource endowment or comparative advantage of the district.
The Trade ministry says a total of 707 business plans have been received from business promoters out of which 602 have been reviewed by the Technical Support Group [TSG] of the ministry with 313 of the plans considered to be feasible for implementation.
The MMDCEs are expected to provide infrastructural support in the form of land, water, electricity to attract potential investors into the various districts. The programme is expected to facilitate the creation of between 7,000 to 15,000 jobs per districts, and between 1.5 million and 3.2 million nationwide by end of 2020.
It is now documented and known fact that Sege, Korledo and its environs have the natural resource endowment and comparative advantage when it comes to the production of watermelon and tomatoes hence deserve a watermelon and tomatoes factory to be established in the above mentioned towns to process raw watermelon, tomatoes and canned them for local consumption and export.
The establishment of the above mentioned factory at the watermelon hub would certainly inure to the socio-economic benefit of the inhabitants of the two towns and adjoining communities in terms of job opportunities for unemployed youth and the scaling up of the standard of living of residents with a rippling effect on the socio-economic fortunes of Ghana as a result of foreign exchange inflows.
Source: Free Press
