Farmers in the Kpandai District of the Northern Region have appealed to government to establish a yam factory in the area under the One District One Factory project.
According to the farmers, the price of yam when transported to the south and other places across the country has reduced drastically making living condition difficult for them.
They lamented that bad roads to their various farms posed a challenge adding that even when they are able to transport their produce from the farms, customers are only willing to buy them at a cheap price.
DGN Online gathered that this year, the district had a bumper harvest of yam but most of it ended up getting rotten at the farms due to lack of good market.
Alidu Yakubu, a farmer at the Kpandai yam market told DGN Online that kpandai is one of the largest yam producing areas in Ghana but little attention is given to the district from government.
He said they spend a lot of money to farm but do not get enough returns in order to feed and take care of their families.
Mr. Yakubu therefore called on government as a matter of urgency to establish a yam factory in the district, adding that it will create job opportunities for the youth in the area and also change the living conditions of residents.
Yam is a leading agricultural export commodity for Ghana with an annual average production of about eight million tons. Ghana’s export of the commodity ranks sixth in the world, representing 10.3% of world exports as at 2016.
FROM Eric Kombat, Kpandai