Lesotho Wire

More than 100 acres of the 1000-acre cashew farm at Vakpo Dzogbega in the North Dayi District of the Volta Region have been destroyed by fire.

The farm is believed to be the largest cashew enterprise in the country and the lost to the fire could reach GHC1.5 million.

Mr Patrick Denka, the Assistant Farm Manager, who briefed the Ghana News Agency (GNA), said the fire came at a time the trees had begun to bear fruit.

More than 4,000 matured cashew trees were lost in the wildfire, he said, suspecting the activities of hunters.

The fire, which occurred on Friday, February 16, reportedly begun around 1500 hours engulfing the farm, the manager said, and that the few trees that were likely to survive would record low yields in the future.

The GNA saw many trees with ripe fruits completely burnt, with some embers still glowing.

Mr Kofi Dzamesi, the Chief Executive Officer of the Bui Power Authority, who owns the farm, said: ‘Losses from the fire could reach GHC1.5 million, and that is a setback to efforts at de
veloping the agrarian landscape of this area.’

He said the incident had been reported to the police and expressed the hope that with the support of traditional leaders, such occurrences would be avoided.

‘I don’t know if its out of ignorance or sheer wickedness. What we know is that the chiefs are behind us. They gave us the land and we will seek their intervention to address the issue of bush burning,’ he said.

Mr Dzamesi spoke of the lack of insurance cover in the country for crop farmers and appealed to the Government to support farm enterprises against fire and other losses.

‘It is difficult to get insurance companies to insure farms, and so the State must come in to support large scale farms’.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Barimah Kumi Acheaw III, the Chief of Abesim near Sunyani, has cautioned residents against indiscriminate littering and refuse disposal to avert the outbreak of communicable diseases.

He warned that the Abesim Divisional Council had set up a taskforce to apprehended those who dumped refuse at unauthorised places or littering around and that those caught would be sanctioned.

Barimah Acheaw, also the Kyidomhene (chief in charge of crowd) of the Dormaa Traditional Area in the Bono Region, gave the warning when he addressed the residents after a clean-up exercise he organised at Abesim in the Sunyani Municipality.

Odeneho Fima Dwaben II, the Paramount Queen Mother of the Dormaa Traditional Area, Nana Konama Biyaa II, Queen of Abesim, also the Kyidomhemaa of Dormaa, and Mr John Ansu Kumi the Sunyani Municipal Chief Executive, joined the hundreds of residents to embark on the exercise.

It commenced around 0600 hours with the women and girls sweeping the surroundings while the men/boys desilted choked gutters an
d cleared bushy areas.

Barimah Acheaw emphasised the Council’s determination to keep the Abesim Town clean to avert the outbreak of communicable diseases.

He reminded the residents that waste bins placed at vantage points along the streets were only meant to collect plastic waste and therefore unlawful for residents to dump household waste into those bins.

‘The taskforce will undertake evening and daytime patrols to apprehend offenders,’ he said.

Barimah Acheaw said Osagyefo Oseadeeyo Dr Agyeman Badu II, the Paramount Chief of Dormaa, instituted the clean-up exercise and it was mandatory for every resident to participate in it.

‘Residents who fail to participate in subsequent exercises without tangible reasons will be sanctioned accordingly,’ he warned.

A clean environment promoted good health and enhanced job productivity, he noted, and advised every resident to endeavour to participate to ensure healthy living.

Odeneho Dwaben, on his part, commended the people for their zeal in ensuring a successful
exercise and advised other chiefs and queens in the Dormaa Traditional Area to embrace it to keep their surroundings clean.

Source: Ghana News Agency