Awutu-Bawjiase(C/R), March 28, GNA - The Assembly member for Bawjiase New Town/Akpeteshie Camp/Ayigbe Town electoral Area, Madam Mercy Essandoh, has advised farmers in the rural communities to stop using bushfires to prepare their farmlands for agricultural purposes. Mad. Essandoh's advice followed reports that some farmers in her electoral area had been using bushfire to clear lands they intend farming on during the main crop season. She reminded farmers who had been adopting such a crude method to prepare farmlands to stop the practice and join in the crusade against bushfires to save the forests and the vegetation.

Mad. Essandoh said the fast approaching Sahara Desert should be a serious bother to all patriotic citizens because the Socio-economic life of the nation rested on the existence of the forests. She called on chiefs, unit committees and assembly members to step up education against the indiscriminate burning of bush in the rural settings. Mad. Essandoh reminded farmers and all those who deal with fire, especially on the farms and the highways that indiscriminate setting of bushfire was a punishable offence which could attract a fine of five million cedis or a jail term of two years or both.