Krachi East Farmers Plead For Good Roads

Farmers in the Krachi East District of the Volta Region, have appealed to the government to complete construction work on the trunk road linking the district to the southern part of the country.

This is to enable easy transportation of large quantities of farm and fish products, produced in the district, to the outside market.

They also requested for the reshaping and tarring of some feeder roads in the district that connect most major market centres and food producing communities to the district capital.

The 2007 Best Farmer for the district, Mr. Daniel Kwabre, who made the appeal on behalf of the farmers said the hardworking farmers and fishermen of the district see the refurbishment and construction of the roads in the district as a measure crowing their efforts.

This he said, would promote food production, the mainstay of the populace in the northern sector, and also best marketing of food produce that has attracted low prices or heavy transportation cost because of bad roads.

Mr. Kwabre who was speaking at the 23rd National Farmers Day celebration and 3rd to be organised in the district, said 'good road network and food production are bedfellows, and serve each other to ensure full benefits to one another.'

He called on the youth to embrace farming by adopting and applying modern techniques to relieve them of the manual labour in order to enable the sustainable production of food and guarantee food security instead of the overdependence on importation of food.

The assembly member for the area, Mr. Emil Ampadu, appealed to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to assist farmers by establishing farmers services centres in the country to deal in farm inputs.

He appealed to the government to provide the farmers with loans to enable them go into large scale farming.

The Krachi-East District Chief Executive, Mr. Micheal Yaw Gyato in his address called on farmers in the district to shift from manual labour that is energy consuming to mechanised system to increase food production to meet the ever increasing population in the country.

Mr. Gyato also advised the farmers to turn away from mass production of crops that do not fetch high prices adding that, 'Krachi East produces large quantities of yams which are of low quantity, that do not attract good market value.'

He appealed to MOFA and agricultural extension officers to help the farmers in planning well especially, with the necessary information on appropriate technology that will be most effective and efficient in increasing yields.

In all, 18 farmers in the district were awarded in various categories for contributing to farming and food production.

They were presented with awards ranging from certificates, bicycles, spraying machines, cutlasses, Wellington boots, radio cassette players, wax prints, among others.