ONE phenomenon that seems to be emerging in the sprawling Tamale metropolis is the stiff competition between estate developers and farmers for the vast stretch of land available in the area for the purposes of estate development and for farming.
Undoubtedly, the expansion of the metropolis, owing to its rapid development, is gradually making the availability of fertile land for farming purposes difficult.
The activities of real estate developers, who are mostly engaged in construction work and such activities as gravel winning, particularly for the provision of landed properties like hotels, residential accommodation and other development projects has compounded the problem of lack of farmlands in the metropolis.
Farmers are, therefore, compelled to move into the peri-urban communities to enable them to have access to fertile land to boost food production.
Another challenge facing farming in the metropolis is the issue of land degradation as a result of extensive cropping on land over the years.
At the recent 25th Metropolitan Farmers Day celebration held at Tampei-Kukuo, a suburb of Tamale, farmers and officials of the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly (TAMA), as well as the Metropolitan Directorate of Food and Agriculture, raised concerns over the seeming “struggle” for land between estate developers and farmers.
According to Mr Kwamina Arkorful, the Metropolitan Director of Food and Agriculture, although farmers in the city were into serious farming activities, “they are gradually losing a lot of land to real estate developers and so they now have to travel into the hinterland and peri-urban communities to get fertile land to farm on”.
The Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE), Alhaji Abdulai Haruna Friday, for his part, observed that “gravel winning due to the activities of contractors and other developers degrades land, without due regard to reclamation and this is greatly affecting fertility of the land on which our survival depends”.
The MCE, therefore, suggested to chiefs and opinion leaders to always liaise with the assembly before releasing land to forestall such problems.
The Overall Metropolitan Best Farmer, Mr Lansah Salifu of Nyerizee, and 18 other farmers in the metropolis also expressed their misgivings about the activities of estate developers.
Some of the farmers entreated the TAMA and other stakeholders to find ways of addressing the problem, since it had a ripple effect on food production in the metropolis.
Indeed, a visit to suburbs like Jisonayili, Gurugu, Tampei-Kukuo, Gumani, Vitting and many others by the Daily Graphic showed that the areas were experiencing massive growth in the building industry. In 2004, the Gurugu area had just a handful of houses, but the story is different today. There are fears that in the not-too-distant future, land for farming purposes will be virtually absent.
A significant number of residents of and visitors to the metropolis are either into the hospitality industry or housing industry, thereby making land increasingly “a hot commodity”.
Owing to the exorbitant rent charged in those suburbs, some residents, including public and civil servants, have decided to go for loans at the banks in order to put up their own houses, although some of them earn meagre salaries.
This and many other activities of investors have made the availability of land for farming purposes quite a difficult task.
No comments:
Post a Comment