Begoro, April 25, GNA - Snail farmers in the Fanteakwa District have expressed concern at the manner rural banks in the area were denying them soft loans to expand their snail rearing project. A spokesman for the farmers, Mr Kwaku Antwi, told Ghana News Agency at Begoro this attitude had resulted in most snail farms collapsing due to lack of funds for expansion.

Mr Antwi, who received the 2004 best district snail farmer award at the national farmers' day celebration, said even though snail farming was labour intensive, some capital was required. He said efforts by the farmers to obtain bank loans failed because the banks were disinterested in assisting them due to long periods of repayment.

Mr Antwi said as a result of the collapse of the snail business, farmers could not supply one million seed snails annually to a company in Kumasi for distribution to farmers. He appealed to the government, through the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, to confer with rural banks to consider extending their farmers' loan scheme to snail farmers to increase the non-traditional export base of the country.