General News of Friday, 7 October 2005

Source: GNA

Farmers in Upper West cannot transport their foodstuff.

Nuale, (UW), Oct. 7, GNA - Farmers in some communities of the Wa West District of the Upper West Region have a perennial problem of transporting their food crops from their farms and communities to major commercial centres due mainly to poor roads and lack of transport to the areas.

The farmers named Kongolmu, Daribatin and Nuale as some of the communities that were affected by the situation and therefore made a passionate appeal to the government to intervene.

All these came to light when Mr. Ambrose Dery, Upper West Regional Minister paid a visit to Nuale, one the communities Forestry Services Division (FSD) was assisting farmers to rejuvenate degraded lands by replanting trees alongside food crops.

Each year, the FSD allocates portions of their 300 acquired lands for farmers to plant their food crops alongside economic trees which making it more convenient for both parties in the partnership. As a result, farmers are gaining a lot of yield due to the subsidies and assistance they receive from FSD and yet cannot transport their proceeds to marketing centers.

Mr. Dery commended them for their efforts adding that their demands were genuine which his outfit would work hard to facilitate their movement from the communities to marketing centres. He also praised the FSD for their efforts at reclaiming degraded forests in a better way that was benefiting their organization and the communities concerned and urged them to collaborate effectively with District Assemblies to achieve goals in the coming years. Mr. William Baah, Regional Manager of FSD said his outfit was reclaiming a total of 730 hectares of land in the region and appealed to affected communities to embrace the exercise for them to achieve their target.

He said, apart from the rejuvenation, they were also educating farmers against bush burning in their areas.