Ban wooden crates as containers — Keta vegetable farmers
The Vegetable Farmers and Marketers Association in the Keta Municipality has called for the banning of wooden crates as containers for carrying vegetables purchased from farmsteads.
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It has recommended the use of plastic crates, which they consider to be more hygienic.
The Chairman of the association, Mr Roland Tudzie, who addressed a news conference at Anloga in the Volta Region, said besides the wooden crates not being hygienic, they were over-size and called for the size to be reduced.
He said wooden crates used in purchasing tomatoes were also heavy and difficult to lift.
Mr Tudzie has, therefore, recommended that wooden crates of size 21 inches by 22 inches by 23 inches, be used as the standard in the purchase of vegetables in the municipality till the end of the year when plastic crates would be introduced.
He said a task force comprising farmers and loaders would be placed at various purchasing centres to ensure that the appropriate crates were used in loading vegetables.
Complaints of loaders
Mr Prosper Golomeke, a loader at the Anloga market, said the current sizes of the wooden crates in use were affecting their health. He said some loaders complained of chest and waist pains, while others had suffered stroke and hernia; others too have died as a result of lifting or carrying such big crates.
Complaints by drivers
Mr Julius Nyamadi, a driver who runs the Keta-Accra route, complained that in cases of vehicle breakdown, transferring crates of tomatoes from one vehicle to another was very difficult. He said in many instances when something like that happened, the drivers had no choice but to leave the goods behind to rot.
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He said if the sizes of the crates were reduced, it would help both traders and drivers.
Other issues
Other issues that were raised at the press conference included frequent power outages and high electricity tariffs charged by the Electricity Company of Ghana.
Most of the farmers said they depended on electricity to irrigate their farms and expressed their worry over the issue since it did not augur well for their work.
A member of the association, Mr Seth Jumpah, urged the government to place the farmers under the social tariff regime since the current billing system that charged them commercial rates for power used was making it difficult for them to expand their farms.
According to him, he spent about GH¢400 every month on utility bills to irrigate his two-acre tomato farm.