Hundreds of bags of cocoa beans have been left to rot at Mumuni, a cocoa producing community near Sambreboi in the Wassa Amenfi West District of the Western Region, due to the bad nature of their roads.
The beans loaded in tractors and transported from the hinterlands usually get stuck in the muddy roads, several kilometers away from Sambreboi for days.
A commuter on one of the tractors told Citi News that “I have my cocoa beans in the bush to be weighed for one week and four days. The rains have not stopped. The road is blocked now and I have been praying to God to come to my side. The DCE and his people only visit us during elections.”
He said “we have complained time and again to them even in view of the fact that Mumuni and other communities around are the largest producers of the cocoa beans in the district which eventually makes those in the assembly rich, they consider our plight as noise in their ears.”
Apart from the beans, over 25 communities have also been cut off from the rest of the district. What is worrying is the fact that passengers, many of whom are returning from convention have been forced to stay with friends and relatives pending any relief from elsewhere.
As at the time Citi News’s Obrempong Yaw Ampofo got to the scene around 6pm on Sunday October 26, 38 commuters including children from the hinterlands who were on tractors loaded with bags of cocoa were taking refuge under plantain leaves near the stuck tractor and were being subjected to heavy downpour.
Each passenger on the tractor is charged GH 15 for the 17 kilometer distance from Mumuni to Sambreboi while Taxi charges GH 20 each.
In the meantime, the only available means is the use of motorbikes. Each of the two passengers on it is also charged GH 25.
One farmer who gave his name as Abeiku threatened that if any government official steps to those communities after they put the road back in shape they will take the law into their own hands. ‘We are telling them [government officials] through your medium that we will stone them when they step after the blockade is removed”. Abeiku threatened.
As at the time Citi News was leaving the district, there was no improvement on the road.
It is however worth noting that the Wassa Amenfi West District is one of the leading cocoa producing districts in the country.
Cocoa trees can be found around school playgrounds, mosques and churches, around homes and by the road sides.
At least two trucks of cocoa beans leave the district on daily basis and between 10 and 20 farmers sell their produce to licensed buying companies.
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By: Obrempong Yaw Ampofo/citifmonline.com/Ghana