Farmers advised to desist from using polluted water

Domeabra (Ash), Sept. 15, GNA - Vegetable farmers in the peri-urban areas have been advised to desist from using polluted and waste water from streams and gutters to water their crops.

They should rather use clean water for growing their vegetables. Nana Kwaku Siaw, Director of Kumah Farms Complex, said using water from unclean sources to grow vegetables posed serious health hazard to consumers in view of the faecal matter in such water. He was speaking to a group of farmers in the Kumasi peri-urban area, who visited the Kumah Farms Complex at Domeabra on Sunday to learn more about organic farming.

Organic farming is a form of agriculture in which only natural materials like droppings of birds and cow dung, among things, are used to grow crops without the inclusion of any chemical fertilizers. He said vegetable growers should at all cost sink small wells and have dugouts on their farms from where they could draw clean water to water their crops instead of using dirty and polluted water.

Nana Siaw said spraying of vegetables with chemicals was equally dangerous since most farmers ignored laid down procedure and misapplied the chemicals in their anxiety to maximise profits.

Nana Siaw suggested that to help preserve and enhance the health of vegetable consumers, it was crucial that farmers adopted the organic farming system in the cultivation of their vegetables.