The Paramount Chief of the Tumu Traditional Area, Kuoro Richard Babini Kanton has appealed to government to work on the Wa-Tumu trunk road to facilitate business transaction between the Sissala Districts and other parts of the country.
He said because of government’s pro-poor intervention, the “Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJs)” programme, there had been a bumper harvest of maize production in the Sissala East and Sissala West Districts but due to the deplorable conditions of the road, maize buyers from the southern parts of the country are unable to patronise the maize produce in the area.
Kuoro Kanton who made the appeal in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Tumu, said poor roads in the Sissala East and Sissala West districts were impeding the movement of people, goods and services from the area.
“This has dampened the hopes and aspirations of maize farmers in the two districts who are now transporting their produce to neighbouring Burkina Faso,” he said.
“It is clear that maize farmers in the two districts are now producing to feed people in Burkina Faso rather than producing to feed Ghanaians,” he added.
The Tumu Kuoro, who is also a Member of the Council of State said the practice is denying the district assemblies the needed revenue while the identity of the Sissala maize was also being denied.
He appealed to donor countries and agricultural related organisations to support the chiefs and people of the area to establish a maize market to help boost maize production.
He said maize farmers in the area were at the disadvantage in terms of good roads and warehouse facilities to store their farmers’ produce.
The Paramount Chief appealed to government to construct many warehouse facilities in the Sissala East and West districts to encourage maize farmers to produce more to feed the nation and for export.
Kuoro Kanton said about 80 per cent of rural poverty would have been reduced if road infrastructure and vibrant transport systems were put in place to support smallholder farmers to haul their farm produce to market centres.
He urged private individuals and companies to come and construct more warehouses to complement government’s efforts and reduce the burden of maize farmers from using their living rooms as storage facilities.
“When there are no good roads, storage facilities and means of transport to carry food crops from the farm gates to the market centres, then there is a serious problem. Without proper infrastructure, all efforts to get the maize to increase output will come to zero,” Kuoro Kanton pointed out.
GNA
