District Chief Executive (DCE) for Berekum West, Isaac Osei has urged the youth in his district to take advantage of vegetable farming especially tomatoes, to better their lives.
Mr Osei who was addressing farmers at Fetentaa during a durbar held by the Vegetable Growers Association of the district last Friday said such a venture will help the youth to refrain from travelling to the cities to look for non-existing white colour jobs.
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He encouraged the farmers and the youth to lift farming activities from subsistence to the level of making it businesses for a higher standard of living.
The DCE also underscored the government’s commitment to supporting the farmers, assuring them of the assembly’s readiness to help them establish a tomato market centre which he believes would create a ready market for their products as well as aid the assembly in its revenue mobilization.
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To drive home his commitment to supporting the farmers, he revealed that grading of farm roads in the area would soon commence for farmers to have easy access to their farms.
This, according to him, will make it easy to transport produce to avoid them being locked up on the farms to rot, a situation he described as unfair to the hardworking farmers.
“The grader is ready to start grading all your farm roads to make them motorable,” he said.
In his address, Chairman for the Association, Mr Kwame Bamfo Kesse said the durbar was a means of interacting with farmers and stakeholders on how to address challenges facing the farmers in their activities.
He cited low financial support, unavailability of ready markets for their products and the difficulty in acquiring land for farming as some of the major challenges facing vegetable producers, especially tomato farmers in the area.
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Adehye Panin of Fetentaa, Nana Effah Amankwaa appealed to the government through the DCE, to help them establish a market centre for their produce.
He noted that the traditional council of Fetentaa had released a 2-acre land for the market and appealed to the Assembly to support them to clear and develop the land.
He added that the establishment of the market would go a long way to grow the tomatoes farming business as farmers would be able to pay off loans to ensure their financial credibility.
“With a ready market we can determine prices of our products and this would make the business lucrative,” he said.