Pramso chief, some farmers lament over ill-treatment given to farmers

Correspondence from Ashanti Region

The chief of Pramso, Nana Gyan Ampontuah II, and some farmers have complained bitterly over the ill-treatment given to farmers by the subsequent governments.

According to most of the farmers in the Bosomtwe district of the Ashanti region who earlier spoke to GhanaWeb, it was very worrying that farmers, despite their outstanding contribution towards the socio-economic development of the nation, still have miserable lives due to the ill-treatment given them by the subsequent governments.

They said the most painful side of their ordeal is that many scholarship schemes such as Cocoa Scholarship etc are rather enjoyed by different individuals at the expense of farmers' children who are supposed to enjoy them. They also disclosed that cost of production keeps upsurging without the government taking any subsidy.

"Now we can't buy fertilizers, spraying machines, weeding sprayers, and even Wallington booths, etc. A farmer may pass through all these ordeals and come back to nothing without the government even increasing the prices of cocoa, maize, palm oil, etc. Is it a crime to be a farmer? the farmers asked.

Some farmers who spoke in an exclusive interview with GhanaWeb prior to the 2022 Farmers'Day Celebration on Friday, even suggested that there's no need for any farmers' day celebration if the government was not ready to consider the welfare of farmers.

Chief of Pramso, Nana Gyan Ampontuah II who is a farmer himself, said it was very worrying how farmers are being treated as ordinary garbage.

According to him, he's sometimes tempted to stop farming despite having 25 acres of cocoa, 25 acres of oil palm, unspecified acres of cassava farm, plantain, etc.

"I am a farmer just like my parents used to be, and when I travelled to Israel, I continued with it due to the love and passion I have for farming.

I have 25 acres each of oil palm and cocoa, but how to get the oil palm on the market mostly become a problem. Even with the cocoa seeds, we mostly sell them at loss due to the poor pricing system. I mostly get dejected being a farmer.

He further revealed that the unfair treatment given to farmers makes farming unattractive and makes farmers poor too.

"Now farmers can't rent for their school-going children nor build houses due to poverty and ill-treatment," he said.

They suggested that it was time farmers go on strike like other workers to teach the government a lesson.