Irrigation: Tomato farmers in Tuobodom call for government support

Tomato farmers in Tuobodom in the Techiman North District of the Bono East Region are lamenting the lack of irrigation facilities in the district on their farming output. 

According to them, the lack of regulated water on their businesses is discouraging them from investing in their farms. 

The chairman of the Tomato farmers in the region, Charles Takyi, noted that their only source of water for cultivation has always been rainwater. 

A situation the farmers say can collapse their business as they cannot cultivate enough to meet demands and now want the necessary stakeholders to come to their aid.

“Tomato production is our main source of income, but during the dry season, everything dries up, we are pleading with the government to get involved and provide farmers with machines to extract water. When that happens, I believe Ghanaians won’t go to Burkina for tomatoes’’ he said.  

The Techiman North district agric director, Paul Tuolong on his part described the situation as worrying. 

He said the lack of irrigation facilities has made farmers in the district plant and harvest at the same time. An activity that causes flooding of tomatoes on the market and subsequent wastages.

“One of the biggest challenges is the availability of water throughout the production period, most of them depend on the rain for production because of that you would realise that in a particular season there’s a lot of produce’’ he added.

Tuolong said that if they are able to have a system whereby, they have water available for all the farmers throughout the season or the year, they can stagger production and control prices.

‘’ If we are able to have irrigation facilities, I think it will help us improve upon production in the district’’ he added.

Winifred Lartey

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