Tonnes of food locked up in Sene districts due to poor roads

Tonnes of food produce are locked up in the Sene districts of the Bono Ahafo region as poor roads make the area inaccessible even before this year's bumper harvest reaches its peak.

The Sene east and west districts do not have a single kilometer of asphalt road though it remains a heavy producer of yam, maize, rice, groundnut and livestock.

Heavy rains in the past weeks have left feeder roads in the area with murky swamps and pools of clayey water in deep trenches.

Farmers, who form more than 90% of the population in the two districts, are helpless as they watch their produce rot on their farms.

The few middle men who make the tiring 46- kilometer journey stretching from the Atebubu-Amantin district to Kejeji, the Sene east district capital, buy the farm produce at cheap prices making the producers worse off.

The National Food Buffer Stock Company, the body set up by the government to buy excess produce from farmers at guaranteed prices to prevent post harvest losses, has also reported it is handicapped.

The company's Director of Operations , Kenneth Aquaye told Myjoyonline.com last week that the company has not been able to purchase maize from the northern region, where similar cases had been reported, because it does not have the facilities to store them.

“I took a loan of GH¢ 2,000 from the local bank to start my groundnut farm 6 months ago and I don't know how I'm going to pay it back so I can start another farming season. I've spent the money clearing the land and paying labourers to work on it but my produce are still here,” says Mr James Kumah, one farmer, as he sprays pests feasting on his 10 bags of groundnut harvest.

Paying back of loans given out to farmers is a condition for new moneys to be given out by banks in the area for farmers to begin a new farming season.

The chief of Bassa, one of the four paramouncies making up the two districts, Nana Owusu Sakyi II, says the area's poor road network is driving farmers out of their job.

“The nature of our roads here makes our farmers poor. Many of them are suffering and dying at a young age because they are unable to get value for the hard work they do. They can't sell at competitive prices because nobody is coming to buy,” he says.

According to him the situation is scaring young people from going into farming- the area's major economic stay.

Until its division in 2012, the two Sene Districts made up the largest district in the Bono Ahafo region covering about 8,586.44 km2.

It is bound to the west by Atebubu-Amantin District, to the east by the Volta Lake and Afram Plains, to the north by east Gonja.