Farmer Musah Mejida at Diani in the West Mamprusi municipality with his two wives and 14 children have returned to the farming five days after the floods destroyed his farm.
They are devastated by the ruins, he says, adding that “I am finished in fact I don’t know what to do because this farm is what myself and the family depend on but with the flooding I don’t know how we will survive.”
In the 2020 crop season, Musah cultivated eleven acres of maize. According to him, he borrowed money to cultivate his farm.
“I took a loan to be able to cultivate the eleven acres hoping that I will harvest and pay back the loan I took but here I am left with nothing with a loan on my head yet to be paid,” he narrated to DGN Online.
“last years ago we experienced similar flooding but it wasn’t that severe as this particular one, now I am here with my family to try and harvest the partly destroyed maize which could be used to prepare porridge ‘Koko’ for the children because it can’t prepare any other food aside that.”
NADMO Assessment Team Report
Musah Mejida’s farm is among 19,690 acres of farmlands destroyed by the floods and the spillage of the Bagre dam in the North East Region according to the NADMO officials.
According to NADMO Officials, about 55,235 persons have been affected, 3,952 persons displaced internally with 206 communities affected and nine persons confirmed dead in the North East region.
The report indicated that 9,736.68 tons of yields made up of maize, rice, millet, soya, cowpea among others, were lost due to the floods.
The NADMO has therefore recommended that affected farmers in the region especially those who farm along the white volta should be supported with foodstuffs and other farm inputs for farmers who may want to go into the cultivation of cowpea and watermelon during the late planting season which commences in October.
As a long-term measure, farmers would be sensitized to avoid planting late maturing legumes and other cereals with the exception of rice in low lying valleys.
However, where it is necessary to plant in low lands, early maturing varieties should be used.
Back at the farm, Fati Musah, wife of Musah Mejida is among the people working at the farm and she says her groundnut farm was part of the destroyed farms by the floods in the region.
She appealed to government and institutions to come to the aid of victims of the floods as they have lost everything.
Sustainable Development Goals
The Sustainable Development Goal 2 calls for ending hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.
But it is believed that the loss of farm produce and animals among others is likely to cause food security problems in the region.
FROM Eric Kombat, Gaagbini