Tamale, May 15, GNA - There had been reported cases of mango trees dying in some parts of the Northern Region, Mr. Sylvester Adongo, the Regional Director of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), has said.

He said reports received from farmers indicated that some of their mango trees had died while others were withering, the cause of which had not yet been established.

He said in view of the situation, the Regional Directorate of MOFA had written to the Savannah Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) to investigate the phenomenon.

Mr. Adongo, in an interview with the GNA said: "There could be many reasons assigned to this problem".

"It could be as a result of the lack of water due to the erratic rainfall pattern last year or the roots of the trees were either standing on rocks or dying of a disease condition," he added. The Regional Director of MOFA said in his own house, he realised that a branch of a mango tree had died, but when he started to water it on a daily basis, it had survived.

Mr Adongo said the Regional Directorate of the MOFA would meet with its District Directors on Tuesday to find out how far the problem had spread to enable it to report back to SARI to decide on the mode of investigation.

In a related development, the Apex Farmers Organisation of Ghana (APFOG) has also reported about dying Mango trees in the region. A statement issued in Tamale and signed by its General Secretary, Osofo Patrick Apullah, said the organisation had carried out a survey on the problem and had identified Tolon-Kumbungu, Savelugu-Nanton Districts as the worst hit in the region.

The APFOG appealed to the MOFA and research institutions, including the universities, to assist in identifying the cause. It also called on NGOs to support the affected farmers with seedlings of high yielding mango varieties and soft loans to enable them to replant their farms. The statement said: "Unless positive action is taken now, the about 3,000 hectares of improved planted mango trees in the country would be affected and this would jeopardise the livelihoods of the farmers".