.... to provide farm
mechanization centre at Builsa North

By Samuel Adadi Akapule, Sandema


The Kobdema Farmers Association has called on government to as a matter of
urgency provide a farm mechanization centre at the Builsa North district to
support farmers in the area expand their farm sizes.
At a Press Conference held at Sandema the Builsa north district capital in
the Upper East Region on Tuesday , the Secretary of the Association, Mr Ademin
Atengkperik who read the statement on behalf of the farmers explained that it
had come to the realisation that the continuous dependence on the hoe and
cutlass as major tools for farming over the years was a major contributory
factor to the low agriculture production and the severing food insecurity among
farmers in the area.
Mr Atengkperik said “Even though government, private organisations and
individuals have for some decades made efforts to mechanise agriculture production
through the provision of tractors and other farm machinery, the desired impact
has not been felt among farming populations at Sandema and its environs”. He
indicated that as result, majority of people in the area who were
farmers were compelled to either use rudimentary implements such as the hoe and
cutlass or contract private tractors and bullock ploughs at exorbitant costs to
till their fields.
The association called on public institutions involved in agriculture
such as the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the Builsa North District
Assembly and other laudable programmes such as SADA and the Northern Rural
Growth Programme to establish farm mechanization centre at Builsa North to
cater for the needs of farmers in the district and beyond.
The group further stressed the need for such facility to take into
consideration ploughing, planting, weeding, harvesting, processing and storage of
farm produce among others.
They tasked government to consider the supply of bullock and donkey
ploughs and other facilities that could easily be manufactured and assembled
locally to meet local environmental conditions as well as the needs of farmers.
“Further more attention should be given to the development of human
capacity in agricultural machinery management, operations and maintenance to
ensure sustainability of the facilities to be provided at the centre”, they
noted
According to the farmers a research conducted by the association in
June, 2013 with funding from the BUSAC Fund revealed that the area had vast
uncultivated arable land and indicated that with sustained investments in farm
mechanization, farmers would utilize the uncultivated arable lands to expand
production and increase food and income security.
In terms of tractor services,
the research revealed that the services were generally available in the area.
However, these services were not adequate to meet the demands of farmers in the
area and were also expensive.
It also revealed that the private sector played the dominant role so far
as tractor services provision in the area was concerned. The Presbyterian
Agriculture Station in Sandema was found to be very active in the provision of
tractor services to farmers over the years.
MOFA and the Builsa North District Assembly were found not to be
involved in the provision of tractor services in the district. However, the
Savannah Accelerated Development Authority at the time of the research had two
tractors in the area which were hired to farmers for ploughing purposes.
The research further showed that even though bullock and donkey
ploughing services were available in the district, the services were currently
not adequate to meet the demands of the predominantly farming population in the
area.
The research stressed that there was little or no involvement of
government in the provision of bullock and donkey ploughing services as the
services were primarily provided by private individuals and the minimum cost of
hiring bullock or donkey plough for preparing one acre of land was GH¢25.00
while the highest cost was GH¢50.00, which the farmers indicated was very
expensive for them to afford.
Mr Vincent Subbey, the Monitor of
BUSAC Fund entreated the farmers to also seek support in the capacity building
in the area of marketing their produce and said this could be in the form of
adding more value to their produce to enable them attract market.
Mr Ernest Beyuo Aayel , BUSAC
Service Fund , regretted that in the three northern regions there was no single
Food Buffer Company and indicated that after pursuing the National Food Buffer
Company they were advised that farmer Associations could form companies to be
licensed by the National Buffer Food Company to enable it purchase food items
for them.
He therefore advised the farmer
Associations in the northern regions to come together and take advantage to purchase
food items for the Buffer Food Company, stressing that this would help address
the problem of marketing of farm produce.