Flooding has destroyed about 485 hectares of vegetable farms in Anloga in Ghana's Volta Region, leaving around 600 farmers facing heavy losses.
According to District Director of Agriculture Franklin Agbove, the deluge followed continuous rainfall on September 12 and wiped out large areas of tomato production. "Shallots, onions, and peppers were also lost to the floods to some extent," he said.
Agbove explained that the crops were at the fruiting stage when the floods occurred. The tomato season has now ended, but the remaining shallots and onions in the fields could still be harvested in December. However, he warned that reduced onion harvests may lead to imports from Burkina Faso and Niger to cover supply gaps.
"Meanwhile, the farmers, including a large number of women, were faced with huge income and job losses," Agbove noted. He appealed to government and non-governmental organisations to provide seeds and inputs to enable farmers to resume production.
Most of the affected farms are already equipped with surface pumps, sprinkler heads, and wells. However, many of the farmers had taken loans to finance cultivation and now face repayment difficulties.
Anloga is known for large-scale vegetable production but lies below sea level, making it susceptible to flooding.
Source: Graphic Online