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Some cabbage farmers at Apantubuom and Yaapesa in the Bosomefreho District of the Ashanti region have attributed the teething challenges of poor road network and lack of ready market for the produce as a disincentive to them.
They believed that cabbage farming could transform their economic fortune if the challenge of bad roads linking the farms to market centres was attended to and ready markets secured for the vegetable.
Jonas Adu-Sei a cabbage farmer from Apantubuom told Silver FM’s Akwadaa Nyame in an interview that cabbage is a “green gold”, which made him to make time to support his family and other individuals at the community and its environs.
“I have been able to send my children to school including tertiary level through the cabbage farming.
You can spend as much as GH¢10,000.00 on two to three acres of cabbage farm,” he explained.
Jonas Adu-Sei, however, noted that sometimes the cabbage and other vegetables got rotten on the farm due to the bad nature of the roads leading to the community, particularly during the rainy season.
According to him, due to the over-reliance on rain-fed agriculture, cabbage farmers could not space their production, which resulted in a glut and post-harvest loses.
Madam Abenaa Attaa, also a cabbage farmer stressed the need for the government to fix the road challenges in the area as well as ensuring ready market for the produce to help improve its cultivation.
She said the government’s One-Village-One-Dam (1V1D) initiative could help ensure all year round cabbage and other vegetables production if it was well implemented.
Madam Attaa said, would give meaning to the One-District-One-Factory (1D1F) project as that would require the establishment of a vegetable in cann factory in the area.
Assembly member in the area Hon Lot Adu Asabre who also spoke to Silver News, said the twin-challenge of poor road network and lack of market discouraged them from cultivating especially the youth in larger quantities.
Hon Adu Asabre noted that “cabbage farming is profitable. All of us who took the farming (cabbage) very seriously are now seeing the benefits. We are all buying and owning properties”.
He, however, said they were not able to farm in large quantities because they were not sure of the market and how to convey them.
Meanwhile, research indicates that consuming cabbage had exceptional health benefits to the human system including reducing the risk of blood pressure and risk of heart attack among others.
Hon Lot Adu Asabre 0242586242 Farmer Mr Jones Adu-Sei 0246715393
By Akwadaa Nyame Silver fm-kumasi
