Tono rice farmers fear loss of 400,000 tonnes of produce
Rice farmers at the Tono Irrigation site at Navrongo in the Upper East Region says, over four thousand metric tonnes of rice cultivated this year could go waste, if the government does not provide farmers market opportunities and combine harvester machines.
According to them, the over one thousand four hundred and fifty (1,450) hectares of rice cultivated and partly harvested are wasting away on the farms while some going bad on the farms due to lack of combine harvesters.
Speaking to Citi News after a tour of the farms, Chairman of Tono Irrigation Cooperative Farmers Union Chief James Adawina highlighted the adverse impact of the situation on farmers.
“This time we are harvesting and you can see a lot of rice sitting on the yard and we are challenged of getting market our rice. And you know when you farm, you need to sell the produce before you can re-cultivate but now we can’t get buyers to buy our produce.”
Rod Waddington