The abrupt stop of the rains has affected groundnut production in the Upper East region
Correspondence from Upper East Region
The rainy season in the Upper East Region ended rather earlier this year. It was expected to end in either October or November, but ended in September. This has affected groundnut farmers massively.
The development has had a dire effect on them because the harvest season had just elapsed and they needed the ground to be moist so that they could easily harvest the nuts.
A look at harvested groundnuts revealed a bunch of bulky leaves with few groundnuts attached to the roots; Under normal circumstances, there should be many groundnuts attached to the roots.
Some farmers shared their frustrations with GhanaWeb’s Upper East Regional correspondent, Sarah Dubure.
A groundnut farmer, Francis Awuni, complained that the situation affected his harvest massively. He explained that he had to use the back of a hoe to hit the ground to make it loose to facilitate harvesting.
“If the hoe doesn’t reach where the groundnuts are, some will remain in the soil and if it is so close to the surface and you hit, you will spoil it because it will burst,” he observed.
Another groundnut farmer, Moses Abindau, lamented that they waited for the rains in order to be able to harvest but never saw a sign.
“Because the rains didn’t come the ground is hard for us to harvest, as such we did not get enough groundnuts,” he said.
Mr. Abindau noted that they had to fetch some water and pour on their farms to soften the ground, to enable them harvest the groundnuts.
“The ground was very hard, so we had to fetch some water and pour on the farm so that we can pull the groundnuts out. Even after pouring the water, we didn’t get a lot of groundnuts. All the groundnuts remained in the ground,” he explained.
Another groundnut farmer, Asisi Atiah’s story was not different. She bitterly lamented that she could not harvest all her groundnuts due to the dried land.
“When we went to harvest, we couldn’t get all the groundnuts because it did not rain. So when you try pulling the groundnuts out, some remain in the soil,” she noted.
According to her, she had to use a hoe to constantly hit the ground so that it would loosen the hard ground a bit. She added that even with that, some of the nuts remained in the ground.