Farmers cry over post-harvest losses due to poor road network

Paramount Chief of Kayoro Traditional Area, Pe Oscar Batabi Tiyiamu II, a farming community in the Kassena-Nankana West District of the Upper East Region has appealed to the government to fix their deplorable roads which is causing post-harvest losses.
The poor road network at Kayoro is hindering farmers from accessing market centers in neighbouring towns and cities to sell their bountiful harvest.
The major road linking the community directly to Paga, the district capital, through Baliu and Pinda communities, is in a deplorable state, with all the culverts broken down and being washed away by erosion, posing danger to vehicles and people who ply it.
The road has been left in that state for several years, and has since been abandoned by commuters.
The only alternative left for the community with a population of over 1,000 and predominantly farmers is the Kayoro-Chuchuliga-Navrongo-Paga road, which passes through two other administrative Municipalities, Builsa North and Kassena-Nankana Municipalities, and more than three times the distance of the Kayoro-Paga road.
Speaking to Ghana News Agency, Pe Oscar Batabi Tiyiamu II, disclosed that the stretch from Kayoro to Chiana was also in a bad state, making it difficult for members of the communities to access the district capital to engage in economic activities and access other social services.
He indicated that farmers who engaged in cultivating various crops, including maize, rice, sorghum, groundnuts, and vegetables were unable to transport their farm produce to the market centres to sell leading to post-harvest losses.
The dilapidated nature of the road was not only scaring investors away but had also compelled farmers to reduce their farm sizes while others had been thrown out of business, thereby deepening the poverty situation in the area, he added.
“We are dominantly peasant farmers and we are not always able to transport our products to the market centres to sell, which always leads to post-harvest losses. Since my enskinment more than 30 years ago, nothing has been done about it although we have appealed severally,” he lamented.
Apart from the road affecting agricultural activities in the area leading to migration, the Paramount Chief lamented that members of the community were denied access to quality healthcare as the referral health facility which is the Paga Health Centre was far from their reach.
Pe Tiyiamu II, therefore, appealed to the government to rehabilitate the Kayoro-Paga road to improve upon the livelihood of the people in the area.
Madam Janet Achagiwe, the Secretary, Kayoro Women Farmers Group noted that due to lack of accessible road people who needed medical attention, particularly pregnant women had difficulty getting to the Paga Health Centre and the delay usually resulted in complications.
She noted that apart from the fact that the community faced acute water shortage with two major communities using only one borehole, it was not connected to the national grid.
She said the lack of electricity was having a toll on the education of their children as they could not learn during the night after school compelling some to trek to different communities to have access to light to learn which sometimes resulted in teenage pregnancies and school dropout.