Agri National

Pineapple Farmers Lament Over Drop In Pineapple Production

By;Nyarko Francis

Pineapple is a highly demanded fruit in Ghana because due mainly to its high vitamin values which is essential towards supporting the growth of the human body. One of the most trusted sources of vitamins are fruits, particularly pineapple.

Even though fruit juice companies like Blue Skies, Bomart, HPW and others continue to demand more of the pineapple fruit from the farmers, local pineapple are still unable to meet the demand from these giant companies.

In view this Rite news spoke to a pineapple farmer at Adawso in the Akwapim-South district of the Eastern region who explained that pineapple production continue to record drastic decline, a situation which he describes as a result of lack of government support.

He said previously they were provided with subsided inputs by a company called Farmer Pack after buying their produce and that farmers were able to produce more of the pineapple fruits for the Ghanaian market and even exported some until the company collapsed in 2008. That according to him has resulted in them no longer getting any support from all sources including government which has also failed to offer the necessary assistance.

Per this, farmers are not able to afford the high cost of agro inputs on the market to produce enough to satisfy the demands of the processing companies.

He stated that another major factor that led to the decrease in the production happens to do with the climate change that caused changes in the weather condition which also affected this year’s rainfall pattern and which consequently affected and hindered effective farming. According to him, “if farmers will have access to irrigation dams, subsided agro inputs and access to credit, production will increase”.

Source: ritefmonline.org

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