Visually impaired rice farmer supported with fertiliser

Correspondence from Upper East Region

The Chief Executive of the Kassena-Nankana Municipal Assembly, Williams Aduum, has donated four bags of fertilizer to Aduni Achana, a visually impaired farmer from Bonia who cultivates rice under the Tono Irrigation scheme.

The donation, which consisted of two bags of Urea and two bags of NPK and weighing 50kg each, was given to the farmer to support him get back to producing rice after he terribly lost his 2-acre farm to bush fire last year.

This is not the first time the MCE has extended a helping hand to the farmer. During the days of the misfortune, he and the Upper East Regional Minister, Tangoba Abayage, made huge donations of an undisclosed amount of cash and food supplies to the farmer and his family to cater for their immediate needs as efforts were made to fully get him back on his feet.

Caesar Awepuga, the Assemblyman for Nogsenia, on Sunday, September 20, 2020, presented the items to the farmer on behalf of the Municipal Chief Executive. The MCE later stated that the gift was in fulfilment of an earlier personal pledge he made to help get the farmer back to his farming activities.

He heaped praises on the farmer for conquering his disability and his contribution to food production in the area, urging him to continue to give off his best to help expand the food basket of the municipality.

Mr. Aduum thanked all the donors who have supported visually impaired Aduni Achana when the incident happened, with special appreciation to Ms. Tangoba Abayage, and appealed to society to not be reluctant in giving support to the disabled who defy their conditions to contribute to community development.

“I don’t really have much to say on the donation since it was in fulfilment of my earlier pledge to support him when his farm got destroyed by the fire. It is my hope that the fertilizer will support him to grow his crop for a bountiful harvest. I will also want to thank those who have supported the farmer especially our honourable regional minister, Honourable Tangoba Abayage who has been very supportive to him when she learnt of the misfortune”.

The MCE urged farmers to be vigilant on their farm to prevent losing farm produce to preventable incidents. He also strongly cautioned against bushfires.

GhanaWeb Journalist in the Upper East Region, Senyalah Castro, last year broke the story of how Aduni Achana lost his entire 2-acre rice farm to bushfire. The fire incident left Mr. Aduni penniless with very little hope of ever going back to farming as he had no money.

But when the story broke, it caught the sympathy of Ghanaians both home and abroad who raised funds to support him. The financial support has enabled the farmer return to his farmland this season to grow rice which has been his major source of livelihood.

Some of the kind donors included the Upper East Regional Minister, Tangoba Abayage, MCE Williams Aduum, Dr. Abdul Tawab Azumah and Emmanuel Asakinaba.

They rest are Desmond Kampoe, Hajia Tawa Zakari, Engineer Nyerere Adda and Linda Adwoa Adomako.

Aduni Achana is very committed to his farm work and was in 2018 adjudged ‘Best Physically Challenged Farmer’ by the Kassena-Nankana Municipal Assembly.