Upper East vegetable farmers face major challenges

Vegetable farmers in the Upper East Region are facing challenges that are affecting production and this is putting some of them out of business.

The Secretary of the Upper East Regional Vegetable Farmers Association, Mr Erick Dalaba, said this at a stakeholders’ workshop organized by the Association to see how they could help address some of the challenges.

In the Upper East Region vegetables including tomato, onions, cabbage, pepper, lettuce and fruit such as water melon are commonly grown by the farmers during the dry season.

Tomato farming used to be one of the major crops which many farmers engaged in and could make much profit but the challenges are making them give it up.

The Secretary of the Association mentioned some of the challenges facing the farmers as lack of capital and credit, pests and diseases, lack of market, input cost, lack of technical know-how and low yields.

Mr. Dalaba appealed to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to come to the aid of the farmers and said if the farmers were supported it would help them a lot since the Region had only one rainy season.

He said due to some of the challenges most of the farmers had abandoned their trade and that was seriously affecting their livelihoods.

He said since the formation of the Association in 2009 it had chalked a lot of success and that it was among the bodies that got the Northern Star Tomato Company (NSTC) established in Pwalugu.

He stated that the Association also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ghana National Tomato Traders and Transporters Association (GNTTTA) to prevent, avoid and manage dumping and glut of tomatoes both in the market and at farm gates, reduce the incidence of fraud against farmers and traders by employing interpreters and agents and together fix the prices of tomatoes as and when necessary.