NPP aspiring MP promises to establish tomato factory

Mr Collins Offinam Takyi, the Tano South Parliamentary candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), in the Brong-Ahafo region, at the weekend promised to establish a tomato processing factory in the area if he becomes the Member of Parliament (MP.

He told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview at Dwomo that, the major occupation of the local people was vegetable production and because of the lack of a processing factory, quantities of ripe tomatoes go waste every crop season.

Mr Takyi, a former Assemblyman for the Dwomo Electoral Area, and an Administrator at the Brong-Ahafo Regional Office of the Association of Rural Banks, said tomato farming thrived in the area and it could earn the country huge foreign exchange if the sector is given the needed support.

He observed that some of the farmers produce the crop in commercial quantities but because there is no standard price for the crop, large quantities always got waste during bumper harvest.

Mr Takyi expressed concern about the high level of poverty among the local people in the communities, saying that, because many of the farmers were poor and could not obtain financial assistance, they were not able to produce the vegetables in large quantities.

He said the Derma-Asuoso, Techimantia-Subriso and Bechem-Derma roads were in bad condition and needs immediate attention.

Mr Takyi noted that since the government cut the sod for the construction of the about 15 kilometre Techimantia-Subriso road in 2011, no work had been done and the road is now in a deplorable state with drivers refusing to ply it especially during the rainy seasons.