Residents in the Wassa Amenfi West District are calling on the government to fix the deplorable roads in the area to enable them transport cocoa beans and other farm produce to the market centres.
This call on government follows earlier reports by citifmonoilne.com that hundreds of bags of cocoa beans were left to go waste on the road linking Mumuni and Samreboi, the leading cocoa producing communties in the district.
Even though a temporary excavator has been deployed to level the road, the Wassa Amenfi District Assembly claims the situation leaves much to be desired.
[contextly_sidebar id=”lDtKdmEbL1StAnep96X3qZejzMokVsWu”]The District Chief Executive for the Wassa Amenfi West District, Victor K. Meisu who has been subjected to verbal attacks by aggrieved farmers said the rate of deterioration particularly on the Samreboi-Mumuni stretch is beyond the assembly.
“The situation is now not as good nor bad as people may want to portray. The cocoa beans which were locked up on the roads have been cleared to the produce buying companies.But some others are locked up in the bush because there are some roads that link the main road which are hard to ply and it is there that we get volumes of cocoa from the farming gates. It will be prudent for the government to come in or to rope in the road into the cocoa roads network. It is high time that the government rope the whole road into the cocoa road system,” the DCE stated.
Expressing his worries, he said the rainfall pattern in the area destroys the roads every rainy season which hinders the transportation of cocoa in the district. He added that the routine maintenance works on the road has failed to end the problem.
“It is worth noticing that cocoa production in the district has seen considerable increase in the past years making the district the leading producer of cocoa in the country. The assembly has attributed the increase to many of the youth shifting their attention from illegal mining which characterized the district last year to the cultivation of cocoa,” he added.
Mr Meisu said the cocoa farming in the district is booming adding that “every youth has now developed the habit of cultivating cocoa. The district has become the leader of the commodity in the past four or five years. In so doing it calls for other incentives or other things that will make the work a little lucrative.”
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By: Obrempong Yaw Ampofo/citifmonline.com/Ghana