Poor Rains In Northern and Middle Belts of Ghana

Farmers in the Brong Ahafo Region are warning of imminent food scarcity in the country due to poor rains this year. True to the predictions of the Ghana Meteorological Agency at the start of the year, rainfall has been low in the northern and middle belts of the country compared to previous years.

The farmers say this has caused them huge losses, leaving a lot of them in heavy debt. President of the Farmers Organisation Network, David Amoah, told Joy news areas in the Brong Ahafo Region including Techiman, Nkoranza, Atebubu and Sene have been badly affected. Cassava, yam and maize are some of the major crops grown there to feed other parts of the country. “This year, the rains have disappointed us. And if care is not taken, Ghana will be in food deficit….these are the food basket areas,” Mr. Amoah told Joy news’ Joseph Opoku Gakpo. Gladys Serwaa Adusei, a cashew, cassava and yam farmer in Techiman said she sank thousands of Ghana cedis into the preparation of land and planting of seeds at the start of the crop season. But she has been disappointed because they have had less than five days of rain this year. “If you get the rains and you start, you plant, when the plants are going to give fruits then the rain stops. So we couldn’t even make any yield. Most of my farmers are also crying. They went for loans and now they cannot pay because the plants didn’t do well because of lack of rains,” she lamented. Gladys says they are praying the trend changes in the months ahead, or they will be in trouble. “We have prepared our lands, we are waiting for rains. Normally the minor season ones should have been planted in August, but in September we have not gotten the rains yet…If the rains don’t come, then next year we the farmers don’t know what we are going to eat,” she said. At the start of the year, the Ghana Meteorological Agency warned there will be low rains this year, a situation it attributed to climate change.