Farmers anticipate hunger in Northern Ghana

Tamale, July 11, GNA - Farmers in the Tamale metropolis are anticipating hunger this farming season as their crops have failed due to the prolonged drought in many parts of northern Ghana.

Alhaji Ibrahim Abdulai, Managing Director of A. A. Ibrahim Cotton Farms, told the GNA in an interview in Tamale on Tuesday that almost all the cotton crop on his 600-hectare farm at Gushiegu in the Gushiegu District had failed to germinate and the few that had germinated had died off due to the drought.

He said as a result of the lack of adequate rainfall he had prematurely harvested groundnut on his 25-hectare farm adding: "Maize on my 15-hectare farm have all withered".

Alhaji Ibrahim who is also Chief of Tugu Yapalsi, near Tamale, appealed to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) to come to the aid of farmers in the region as a matter of urgency. Alhaji Abraham, who was almost in tears, described the situation as "total disaster" that had befallen the three northern regions and called on the MOFA to take immediate measures to address the situation. Mr. Dominic Pokperlaar, the Northern Regional Meteorologist, described the situation as "very terrible" for farming this year.

About 20 farmers also told the GNA that almost all the crops they had planted this farming season were dying off because the ground had become patched rendering their efforts fruitless. They wondered what they would subsist on till the next farming season and appealed to the government and its development partners to come to the aid of farmers in northern Ghana.