Bad roads affecting purchases of Cocoa beans in Atwima Mponua

Deplorable road networks in the Atwima Mponua District of Ashanti, is forcing Licensed Produce Buying Companies (LPBC) to abandon cocoa purchases in communities in the district. The situation is so bad that, hundreds of bags of cocoa beans purchased from farmers in the communities have been locked up due to lack of vehicle to transport them to the depots of the companies. Mr Kwaku Owusu Boateng, Unit Committee chairman of Afepaye, a cocoa growing community in the district, who made this known to the Ghana News Agency, said cocoa purchasing clerks have stopped buying their produce due to the bad nature of the road linking the village to depot centres. He said more then 1000 bags of cocoa purchased from farmers in the village were still in the sheds because drivers were refusing to evacuate them due to the deplorable nature of the road leading to the village. Mr Boateng said even though the government had awarded the road on contract, the contractor had abandoned the project. He said the situation was also affecting the construction of boreholes for communities in the area, where the buruli ulcer disease was common. He said contractors were unable to transport their heavy equipment to the villages due to the bad nature of the roads to construct the boreholes to help prevent the buruli ulcer pandemic. The Unit Committee chairman said the other alternative of travelling was by a boat on river Offin, but that too had been hampered due to flooding. Nana Kwabena Asiedu, chief of the village appealed to the government to either terminate the contract or put pressure on the contractor to complete the project.