The biggest Bird’s Eye Chilli farm in the country is being threatened by the wilt disease.
The 25-acre farm cultivated along the banks of the Volta Lake at Kpando Tokor in the Volta Region will no longer exist if immediate assistance is not given to the farmers in the form of floating watering pumps, as the three pumping machine stations have been submerged.
Twenty-five farmers are cultivating an acre of farm each under the Kpando Tokor Irrigation Project.
The project, initiated by the Irrigation Development Authority (IDA) some 15 years ago, originally had 109 farmers working under it. They cultivated vegetables, especially okra and garden eggs, for the local market.
Last year, the farmers could not get good market for their produce, which compelled them to abandon the farms.
The ACDI/VOCA, under the Millennium Development Authority (MIDA) and headed by Dr Ben Dadzie, intervened. Dr Dadzie was masterminding the MIDA-sponsored rice project in the Hohoe Municipality and the Kpando District.
He introduced the farmers to the Bird’s Eye Chilli project and some of the farmers got interested. According to Dr Dadzie, he educated them on the importance of the produce and the worldwide demand for it, which made some of the farmers to develop interest in it.
A recent visit to the farms showed that the farmers were happily harvesting their crops, which had ready market.
According to one of the farmers, Mr Samuel Ebili, the customers came to buy the produce straight from their farms for export.
He said Chilli, which had a very high medicinal value, was also used as pepper spray for tear-gas used in self-defence.
Mr Ebili said their biggest challenge was the lack of a pumping machine, adding that the only one available had to be moved from one place to another, which he described as a laborious venture.
He said the Volta Lake had submerged the three pumping stations the IDA had constructed.
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