Tomato Farmers in Despair As Produce Rots

There is an artificial glut of tomatoes in the Upper East Region, following the recent fuel increases.

Although many tomato farms suffered invasions by a pest named nematode, which seriously affected tomato production in parts of the region, the farmers were hopeful that they could recover the losses as the produce did not generally do well and prices were expected to go high as a result of scarcity.

The produce, however, is rotting on farms at the Vea and Tono irrigation dams and the White Volta basin at Pwalugu, also in the region, due to the inability of market queens, who are the major clients of these farmers, to travel to the region to patronise the produce as a result of high charges by transport operators.

At about this same period last year, a crate of tomatoes sold for about 350,000 cedis, but at present, the situation is quite different. Even at a very low price of 180,000 cedis, there are few buyers.

The supply of tomatoes at the local markets far exceeds the demand, thereby worsening the plight of the farmers.

A survey conducted by the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Bolgatanga indicated that just a handful of the market queens from southern Ghana were in the region to transact business, and in some cases the farmers are compelled to sell the produce on credit. A cross-section of tomato farmers expressed shock and dismay at the trend of affairs.

Mr. Stephen Azantilo, a public servant who has gone into the tomato business said his expectations were that after the nematode disease had affected most farms in the area with everything pointing to a lean harvest, he and his colleagues took consolation in the fact that they could make some significant profit as their crop was not affected by the pest.

Another farmer, Mr. John Akaribo, who is also Assemblyman for the Nyariga-Done electoral area, expressed similar sentiments and appealed to the government through the Regional Co-ordinating Council (RCC) to, as a matter of urgency, assist farmers to market their produce. Already the regional office of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) has put an announcement on the local URA-radio FM station advising farmers on temporary strategies they should adopt to minimise the nematode infection in the area. Tomato farming is being widely undertaken in recent times by most unemployed youth, civil and public servants as well as the traditional farmers, because it is seen as one of the most lucrative jobs available in the dry season. However, the enterprise is also becoming increasingly risky as the present situation has indicated.