By Solomon Gumah
Tamale, Nov 30, GNA – Some women smallholder farmers in the Northern Region have expressed worry over post-harvest losses and the adverse implications on their livelihoods.
These concerns come at a time when the country has almost completed preparations to honour its farmers for their contribution to sustaining food security.
They mentioned the non-availability of post-harvest management interventions, which was adversely affecting their active participation in agriculture.
Madam Alhassan Nimatu, a smallholder farmer, who cultivates pepper at Nabela in the Yendi Municipality, told the Ghana News Agency that she had reduced her production size because of the impact of the losses she incurred last year.
“I have personally reduced my six-acre pepper farm to only two acres because I don’t know how to store them for the right market,” she said.
Sanatu Jeremiah, another farmer at Gomdakura in the Mion District, said last year, she harvested 50 bags (100 kilogrammes) but by the time she sold it in March, barely three months after harvesting, she had lost five bags.
“I nearly accused my rival of stealing my maize because of the losses within the period of three months,” she lamented.
Post-harvest losses have been one of the constraints to improving food and nutritional security in Ghana.
Women farmers annually grappled with most of the factors that farmers in northern Ghana encounter, high among them being access to land.
GNA