Okro farmers at Dalun a community in the Kumbungu district of the Northern Region have appealed to government to extend the fertilizer subsidy under the planting for food and jobs program to cover dry season vegetable farmers in the area.
The farmers said that the current high cost of fuel for pumping their machines, high cost of fertilizer and low market price for their produce is affecting their profits.
Dalun is a rural community with over 8,000 inhabitants who are mostly farmers.
The area like most parts of the savannah ecological zone has only one cropping season.
Farmers are therefore compelled to use irrigation to ensure all year round farming, and they mostly cultivate okro to supplement their incomes.
However, the farmers lack modern equipment and affordable farm inputs to facilitate their farming activities.
Their source of water is a small tributary of the White Volta. The farmers use water pumping machines and old PVC pipes to draw water to their farmlands.
One of the farmers Zakaria Abdul-Karim told Citi News the cost of the PVC pipes are expensive.
“We are unable to farm close to the river bank because the land loses its fertility after the first cropping season. Because of that, we buy about fifty pipes to draw water to our farmland and this cost us a lot.”
The farmers who are not beneficiaries of the governments fertilizer subsidy programme are appealing for inclusion. They complain about the high cost and how that is affecting their businesses
“We use machines, fueling the machines is also another cost, last year, I use GHc15 on a half acre but this year, I used GHc25 of fuel to water my land. Also, fertilizer is another challenge, last year we appealed to government to include us in the planting for food and jobs because we start our farming in January and fertilizer application also starts in January. I use about six sacks of fertilizer on my farm for a good yield,” Abdul-Karim said.
Abass Adam is also a vegetable farmer and for him, low market pricing for their produce is affecting them.
“Our only hope about marketing is the women who act us middlewomen. They buy from the farm gate and send it to the cities but they dictate the price for us that is where our problem comes because we undergo a loss of cost and sometimes we don’t break even. So wish to get someone to regulate the price for us.”
Meanwhile, over two hundred residents earn their livelihood through vegetable cultivation in Dalun however, the challenges they confront is affecting production and appeal for government support.
This according to them will help alleviate the poverty level in the area.
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By: Diana Ngon | citinewsroom.com | Ghana