Correspondence from Ashanti Region

Farmers within parts of Amansie West district of the Ashanti region are demanding for the immediate construction of their roads.

According to these farmers in areas such as Abom, Doublekrom, Pakyi Banko, and other villages, one of their main worry is the poor road network.

They explained that the deplorable road makes it difficult for them to access their farms, as well as transport farm produce for storage.

They said the poor roads has become a threat to the success of the Planting for Food and Jobs programme.

Perishable food crops such as tomatoes, pepper, cabbage, lettuce and onion are vulnerable to the weather and spoil easily when they're left for some time without getting access to transport them.

The farmers in the above-mentioned villages speaking in an interview with Ghanaweb said bush fires, stray and wild animals and unexpected rains have destroyed some of the crops harvested in November and December 2020.

These farm produce ]were left on the farms due to the lack of transport and storage facilities.

The farmers said even though they had a good harvest last year, but most of their farm produce were lost during the rainy season as they were not able to transport the food crops to the market and their houses for storage.

“Vehicles cannot access the farms to convey our farm produce to the market for sale and this is leading to lot of loses”.

At Abom and Pakyi Banko, some of the Cocoa farmers said they might not be able to transport their vegetables to the market because there are no roads linking their farms and other communities that further link to the nearest market in the regional capital.

Two of these farmers, Mr Solomon and Mr. Ahmed Karikari who are both vegetable and Cocoa farmers at Abom and Pakyi Banko, said their communities have been cut off in terms of development, from Amansie West, the District capital and they are not able to transport their food produce to market centres in the region.

“Our vegetables such as cabbage, lettuce, tomatoes and pepper among others get rotten in the farms when we are unable to transport them on time to the market”, the farmers said.

At Doublekrom, farming community in the Amansie West district, Cocoa farmers group registered their displeasure on the road linking their community to the Pakyi- Kumasi road saying some farmers are pulling out of the Cocoa and vegetable farming business as they could not transport their produce to the market for sale.

Onion farmers at villages such as Camp and Bredi expressed frustration over the issue and appealed to the district assembly to rehabilitate some of the feeder roads that would enable them access their farms and also be able to transport their produce.

They reiterated that poor road network could be a threat to the success and sustainability of government's flagship programmes such as the Planting for Food and Jobs, Youth in farming etc.