Afadjato: Female rice farmers appeal for harvesters to prevent produce from going to waste
To avoid their harvest (harvesters) from going to waste in the coming days due to the arrival of the harmattan, female rice farmers from the Volta Region’s top producing districts have appealed for help from harvesters.
They claim that the absence of combined harvesters could result in the loss of roughly 3,000 acres of rice plantations in two municipalities in the Volta Region that are prepared for harvest.
The Ministry of Food and Agriculture has been contacted by peasant farmers whose rice has been left in the field because combined harvesters aren’t available to help them harvest it.
The female rice farmers, who number around 200, are located in the settlements of Gblefi, Golokuati, Logba, Tafi, Gbledi, Alavanyo, and Godenu in the Afadjato South District and Hohoe Municipal districts.
Some of them have warned Mary Anane-Amponsah of Graphic Online that if nothing is done to help them, their rice may spoil within a few days, especially now that the harmattan has arrived.
Margaret Saku, a rice farmer in Golokuati, claimed that four of the five combined harvesters in the Afadjato South District that were used to harvest their crop had broken down, leaving the fifth unable to meet the farmers’ needs.
Madam Saku who owns about 30 acres of rice farm said: “we will lose all our investment if we don’t get combined harvesters immediately”.
The farmer who said they had spent fortunes to cultivate the rice, explained that the longer the rice stayed on the farm, the more losses they would incur.
“Even if we are able to harvest, their pricing will suffer if they are too dry on the farm since we won’t receive good grain and it will all be broken.”
At Tafi Atome, Emefa Angella Adzaku, a different rice farmer, added: “Here in Tafi, we don’t even have one combined harvester to harvest our rice. Help is needed “.
She explained that because hiring laborers to harvest the rice was very expensive and time-consuming, they couldn’t rely on them.
Franklin Agbove, the Afadjato South District Director of Agric, acknowledged the difficulties facing the farmers and said that during the past few weeks, his department had made plans to acquire some private combine harvesters to help, but “the situation is overwhelming.”
He claimed that the expectations of the farmers were too much for the private harvesters, which prevented many farms from purchasing machinery to harvest their rice.
According to Winfried Donkor, executive director of Accelerated Rural Development Organisation, an NGO that helps farmers develop their operations, the farmers who formerly farmed as peasants are now engaged in commercial rice cultivation.
He claims that the action is in favor of government initiatives to boost food production, particularly in the area of rice farming, and that it could not be left unattended in order to rescue a situation that has grown too serious for the farmers to bear.
A lot of money had been invested in the 3000 acres of rice cultivation, he said, and it could not be allowed to be wasted.
Mr. Donkor urgently pleaded with the ministry and private investors to assist the women farmers in gathering their product before it was too late.
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