Upper East tomato growers learn best agronomic practices to boost income

Tomato growers in the Upper East Region are being introduced to best agronomic practices to help significantly boost production and to raise farmers’ income.

The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) has selected 180 farmers for the pilot programme.

 Mr Stephen Yakubu, the Regional Minister, has visited some of the tomato farms in the Zaare Operational area along the Vea River in the Bolgatanga Municipality.

The farmers, under the pilot programme, are doing farm adaptive trials of organic and inorganic tomato production with the ‘Rajar’, ‘Sika’ and what has been labelled as ‘No Name’ tomato varieties.

Mr Yakubu, who was accompanied by the Bolgatanga Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Rex Asanga, and the Regional Director of MoFA, Mr Francis Ennor, to see for himself how things were going, expressed satisfaction with what he saw.

He said he was impressed by the zeal of the farmers and expressed optimism that Ghana would soon be effectively competing with Burkina Faso in tomato production.

 Trucks would no longer be crossing into the neighbouring country to bring tomatoes to Ghana.

“If the farmers continue to produce such quality tomatoes, in two years the region will supply tomatoes to feed the country,” he said.

The farmers complained about inadequate water supply to the farms and the difficulty of getting fertilisers. -GNA