Tomato farmers in Tuobodom lament low sales

Correspondence from Bono East Region

Tomato farmers in Tuobodom in the Techiman North District of the Bono East Region are lamenting over low patronage.

Tomatoes harvested by the farmers are going to waste as helpless farmers wait impatiently by the roadside for prospective buyers.

According to the farmers, despite all their frantic efforts to meet the local demand

Read full articlefor the consumption of tomatoes, sales are generally low.

They indicated that most of them secured loans from the banks and other financial institutions at high-interest rates but the current situation is likely to put them out of business and eventually make life unbearable for them.

One of the affected farmers, Mr. Martin Kwabena Agyei, indicated that if the current situation persists, they will be unable to repay their loans and appealed to buyers to visit Tuobodom to purchase fresh and quality tomatoes.

“The year has not been good for tomato farmers in Tuobodom. We have harvested several boxes of tomatoes but they are going to waste because we are not getting buyers to purchase them so we are appealing to traders across the country to come to Tuobodom to purchase quality and fresh tomatoes.”

On her part, Faustina Asantewaa added that the trend where harvested tomatoes get rotten because of the absence of a reliable market is not motivating farmers to continue farming and urged the government to put in place measures to reduce the perennial wastage in the agriculture sector.

“One problem tomato and other crop farmers are battling with is wastage because of the absence of storage facilities and reliable market so we are appealing to the government to support us in that regard because we are really suffering,” Faustina Asantewaa appealed.