Farmer calls for stable prices of food crops

Kranka (B/A), Nov. 14, GNA- A farmer at Kranka in the Nkoranza district has called for stable prices of food crops to enable farmers to increase their yields and improve their living standards.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Kranka, the 43- year-old Oheneba Kwaku Baffoe, said foodstuffs such as maize, yam, cocoyam and cassava, which are Ghanaian staple foods, have no stable prices. He said increases in the price of cocoa had made producers of the crop to become better off than other farmers.

Food crop farmers purchase inputs such as fertilizer, insecticides and spraying machines unlike our counterparts in the cocoa industry who enjoy mass spraying of their farms, he added.

Oheneba Baffoe complained about scholarship awards offered to the children of cocoa farmers, while those of other farmers had no access to the facility.

In another development, Mr Stephen Kwadwo Adjei, Manager of Progressive Farms at Jerusalem, near Nkoranza, has urged the Government to grant loans to interested youth to embark on farming.

Mr Adjei, who was the Brong Ahafo Regional Best Farmer in 1994, suggested the setting up of a special task force of agricultural experts to visit farmers on their farms to know their needs before recommending those to be granted loans.

He advised the unemployed youth to desist from moving from the rural areas to the urban centre for non-existing jobs.