By Regina Benneh
Sampa (B/R), April 27, GNA – Taskforces have been formed within cashew farming communities to compel buyers to pay government-approved price per kilogramme to the cashew farmers.
Mr. Solomon Owusu, the Jaman North District Chief Executive (DCE) who announced this said the essence was to ensure unscrupulous buyers would not cheat the farmers by paying below the GHS 8.50p per kilogramme approved by the Ghana Tree Crop Development Authority (TCDA).
The composition of the taskforce comprised personnel from the Ghana Armed Forces, Information Services Department, Ghana Revenue Authority, and the Ghana Police Service.
Mr. Owusu told the Ghana News Agency in an interview about the challenges confronting particularly cashew farmers in the area at Sampa, the district capital in the Bono Region said most of the farmers were suffering for non-payment of approved prices because some buyers took advantage of their vulnerabilities.
He explained some of the farmers in dire need of money to buy insecticides to spray their farms and other important family needs, accepted prices less than the approved kilogramme prices.
He warned that cheating buyers would not be spared by the law but would be prosecuted because “it is criminal.”
Mr. Owusu cited the deplorable nature of the roads in the district too had been a major challenge and contributory factor affecting the cashew business.
The DCE explained drivers who were supposed to convey the commodity in their trucks from the farm gates and aggregation points to the depots and buying centres sometimes refused to render such services, particularly in the rainy season.
Mr. Owusu said the District Assembly had therefore started reshaping and rehabilitating some of the deplorable roads to address the challenge of transportation to save farmers from running at a loss.
GNA