Farmers commit suicide over rotten tomatoes

Vegetable farmers at Akomadan in the Tano North District of the Ashanti Region are crying for help as perennial post-harvest losses are forcing some of them to commit suicide.

The farmers secure huge loans to grow their crops but most of their harvests rot on the farms because there’s no ready market.

Luv FM’s KwabenaOwusu Ampratwum visited the community for Joy FM's Hotline documentary series and reports the situation is dire.

“Growing tomatoes here is like a lottery. You never know when you’ll not record serious losses. Some people are committing suicide as a result of this,” a worried farmer told Hotline.

The situation has been compounded by bad feeder roads in the community. The roads feature large gullies filled with mud and sludge. During the rainy season, it’s a big luck to travel a kilometer without getting stuck in mud.

As a result middle men and women, and not the farmers, determine the prices of produce.

“The sale of the tomatoes is a problem. The women determine how much we get at the end of the day. The tomatoes are perishable so we have no choice than to give it to them at any rate. Even after prices have been agreed with the women, they sometimes change their mind when we bring the produce from the farm.

The saddest part of the story is that sometimes acres of tomatoes are left to rot on the farm.

“I spent over three thousand cedis on this farm but I could only raise two thousand cedis. I was only fortunate to have grown some cassava on another parcel of land. That was what saved,” another farmer told Hotline.

Because of these losses the farmers are scared to invest to expand their own farmers – high yields do not necessarily translate into high earnings.