Kutire (Brong Ahafo) 28 May '99

 

Large quantities of Okro are getting rotten in the Berekum district due to lack of ready market.

Particularly hit by the glut is the farming community of Kutire, where over one hundred vegetable farmers routinely throw away baskets of okro daily because they cannot find an outlet for their produce.

Consequently, most of them are finding it extremely difficult to recoup their investments to re-pay loans or pay their children's school fees.

The regional chairperson of the Ghana National Association of Farmers and Fisherman (GNAFF), Madam Yaa Badu, today visited the affected farmers at Kutire, near Berekum, to ascertain how best they could be helped.

Madam Badu described the situation as "pathetic and demoralising", and said the association is arranging for extensive radio announcements on the glut to help attract buyers for them.

She disclosed that because of the critical nature of the situation, the association has put in place a package under which the produce of registered members would be purchased by the GNAFF for re-sale in Accra.

Madam Badu appealed to vegetable traders in the urban centres, especially those in Accra, to go to Kutire and other communities, such as Mpatapo, for their okro purchases to save the farmers from financial disaster.

One of the affected farmers, Mr Thomas Kwadwo Gyamfi, 31, said this year's harvest has been exeptionally good, because of the adoption of modern methods of farming imparted to them by agricultural extension officers at the beginning of the farming season.

Mr Gyamfi noted that the adoption of the modern methods has brought about the mixed blessing of bumper harvest and low prices.As a result, a medium size basket of okro, which should be sold at 7,000 cedis, is being bought at 3,000 cedis.

Mr Gyamfi said proceeds from sales of the okro is so low that farmers in their desperate attempt to find market walk on foot for about five kilometres to Berekum with their produce, because they cannot afford the cost of transport.