COCOA and some foodstuffs are said to have been locked up in the northern part of the Western Region as a result of heavy rains which have rendered some of the roads in the area impassable.
In some of the cocoa-growing communities, farmers have been compelled by the circumstance to carry their food crops, cocoa and other items on their heads and travel miles to the buying centres, where their produce could be purchased.
The worst affected districts are the Aowin-Suaman, Wassa Amenfi West and Central, Jomoro, Bogoso-Prestea, Tarkwa and Ellembelle.
In the case of Munini Camp, which has been cut off from the rest of the Western Region, the farmers sometimes throw away their cocoa beans because they go bad.
According to the people, a fertiliser company has promised to build a warehouse for them, but cocoa clerks are not ready to go there because the main feeder road to the town has been reduced to a footpath after the rain.
“We do not have access to potable water and other social amenities. In actual fact we are completely cut off from the rest of the country due to the nature of the road,” one Openyi Karle said.
A visit to those cocoa-growing communities by the Daily Graphic revealed that some communities had to rely on rickety trucks to travel to Elubo and Tarkwa before connecting to Takoradi and Accra.
When contacted, the Chief Executive for Aowin-Suaman, Mr Oscar Ofori Larbi, said he was not happy about the transportation difficulties confronting the people in the area.
The situation in the Wassa Amenfi West and Central districts was not different from that of Aowin-Suaman. Farmers at Asankragua-Bekwae, Turumpo, Krobo-Prestea, Amenfi Atitibere and Ehumbre were seen carrying bags of fertiliser because commercial vehicles could hardly ply the road.
The District Chief Executive, Mr Victor Samuel K. Muisu, said “my heart bleeds anytime l see these poor farmers carrying loads of foodstuffs on their heads to market centres daily”.
“We in the cities enjoy some privileges at the expense of cocoa farmers in the rural areas. Their produce is sold on the international market but they have to go through this difficulty on daily basis. This is pathetic,” he stated.
“Fortunately we have a grader but it is not enough to help the people, interestingly some portions of the roads have been reduced to footpath,” he said.
A similar situation could be said of Tikobo 1& 2 in the Jomoro District and Atieku, as well as some other communities in the Mpohor Wassa East District.
A visit to the Takoradi Central, Kojokrom and Sekondi markets which rely on food supplies from those affected districts, indicated that prices of food had increased and the market women attributed the high prices to high transport fares mainly as a result of the bad nature of the roads.
When contacted, the Regional Director of Feeder Roads in the Western Region, Mr K.N. Akosah-Koduah, said it was a fact that many of the roads in the cocoa-growing areas in the region were not in good shape.
“We have, therefore, directed our district officers and the district assembly to team up with our district engineers to give us the list of the affected road in all the 17 districts in the region,” he said. The regional director said one of the contributory factors was that some contractors, having won the contracts, failed to execute the projects after taking the mobilisation funds.
Mr Akosah-Koduah said the Feeder Roads Department was taking inventory of all the affected feeder roads for appropriate recommendations to be made.
Asked if they had the capacity to undertake projects, he said the regional office did not have even a single grader and other facilities to enable them to carry out any project.
The Western Regional Minister, Mr Paul Evans Aidoo, gave assurance that the government was committed to taking measures to address the plight of the people in the cocoa-growing areas in the region.
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