Rice farmers at Donaso in the Ejisu Municipality of the Ashanti region are angry with various institutions and agents that work in the agricultural sector.
The farmers accuse such institutions both governmental and non-governmental, together with their assigns of continuous deception.
Ghanagong.com’s Bernard Buachi, together with Oyerepa FM’s Richmond Frimpong, members of the Ghana Agriculture and Rural Development Journalists Association (GARDJA), visited some farms within the municipality to assess how the government’s Planting for Food and Jobs Programme is impacting the lives of the farmers.
The farmers who initially thought the reporters were government assigns expressed anger and were reluctant to engage.
They later revealed that they feel deceived by the several empty promises made to them. “You people come here, ask us questions and then go for the money, and we receive nothing in spite of beautiful promises always being made to us” they said.
Mr. Abdulai Abubakar, one of the farm leaders said “we do not have water, the subsidized fertilizers too, we mostly do not get some to buy when we go there. We need water, loan facilities, threshers and other machines that can make our work easy”
Mr. Abdulai Abubakar explained that the farmers numbering 40 have 87 acres combined but are not receiving any significant help from the government as far as they are concerned. He said they are currently able to harvest about 3,000 bags of rice and believe they can even do more with the needed assistance.
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