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 began 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 developing 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 it’s 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”.
From Samuel Akumatey, Vakpo
GNA
