EDIF Rescues Mango Farmers

FRUSTRATED MANGO farmers in the Northern region have expressed joy after the Export Development and Investment Fund (EDIF) purchased all their mango seedlings.

The farmers could not find buyers for their nursed mango seedlings, plunging them into heavy debts and operational difficulties.  

EDIF, after a publication on the plight of the farmers, came to the rescue of the farmers and bought almost all their grafted mango seedlings, keeping the hopes of the poor farmers alive.  

Speaking in an exclusive interview with the CITY&BUSINESS GUIDE, one of the beneficiaries, Dr. Hajia Salamatu Taimako said the move by EDIF had given them hope as “most of them were beginning to lose interest in the plantation of grafted mango seedlings.”

Taimako Plant Nursery, she noted, had been in mango and general tree planting for a couple of years, indicating that she had been able to raise over 200,000 mango plants in the last three years but “had no ready market for them.”

“The situation compounded because I could not make profit due to poor sales, but had to pay salaries of workers until EDIF offered to buy all the grafted mango plants in the nursery.

I realized thousands of Ghana cedis from the sale and have re-engaged all the workers that I had laid off,” she added.

She noted that activities at the nursery had picked up, adding that the proceeds from the sale of the grafted mangoes would be reinvested in the nursery.

She expressed hope that the relationship between the mango farmers and EDIF would be strengthened and called on other organizations to come to the aid of the farmers.

The renowned mango farmer revealed that her outfit would produce about 800,000 mango plant seedlings and other medical plants in the future.

From Stephen Zoure, Tamale