Forum On Agriculture Held In Agogo, Ashanti Region

Centenary Hall, Agogo – Ashanti, October 29 – Opinion leaders, royalty and duty-bearers have discussed challenges facing agriculture in the Ashanti region. The deliberations were at a forum organized by informGhana, BloggingGhana's STAR-Ghana funded programme.

The Assistant District Director of Agriculture, Mr Felix Sackitey, informed the audience that Agogo was the leading producer of plantain in the country. He explained that the days of subsistence farming was gradually ending. Huge commercial farming activities were becoming the norm in the Ashanti region.

He pointed out the crop destruction activities of nomadic herdsmen, the lack of good roads to transport crops, the high prices of feed, the high prices of fertilizers and pesticides, and the lack of good irrigation facilities as some of the challenges that the region faced in agriculture. He also asked for the establishment of agro-processing factories to avoid the sale of crops at below production cost prices during harvest seasons.

The challenges identified by the Assistant Director was corroborated by the chief farmers in Agogo. The chief farmer, Nana Asiedu Kukrubuor, said that agriculture had severely reduced the unemployment in the Agogo town.

Responding to the issue of the nomadic herdsmen, the Chiefs said they had filed a successful suit against them as far back as 2011. However, they revealed that the judgment had not been effected, and the problem remains till date.

A former DCE, Honourable Thomas Osei Bonsu, said the cattle belonged to people who lived in Accra, Tamale and other places and they paid for their cattle to be looked after. He revealed that the herdsmen were mostly Fulanis from Niger, Nigeria and Burkina Faso. He said that he had personally seen national security over the issue. He also said that the case had gone to court and they had received a favorable judgment. He called for government support to move the herdsmen out of the area.