File photo of a fire disaster
There is a looming food crisis in the Wenchi Municipality of the Bono Region, as thousands of local and indigenous farmers in the local communities lose their livelihoods, and sustenance to wildfires.
The fire, the Ghana News Agency (GNA) gathered from victims, started last Monday February 3, 2025, and destroyed acres of cashew and crop farms, and left the affected communities in a state of despair.
During a visit to some communities in the municipality, the Ghana News Agency noticed that the fire swept through and caused extensive destruction to more than 1,000 acres of cashew, cocoa, plantain, yam, cassava and maize farms.
The victims in the worst affected communities of Tromeso, Subinso, Bopetrem, Buoku and Abotare, therefore called for government intervention and support to re-plant their crops and economic trees to sustain their livelihoods.
In an interview with the GNA the victims attributed the cause of the fire to the influx, uncontrolled and unlawful cattle grazing activities of nomadic Fulani herdsmen who had settled in parts of the municipality.
The Reverend Dr Emmanuel Ameyaw-Akumfi, a farmer who lost several acres of cashew and cocoa farms at Tromeso, and also the spokesperson for the victims, regretted about the continuous arrival of the nomads in the municipality.
He alleged because of the dry season, the nomads set the fires deliberately to the “green grass to germinate” and enabled them to feed their animals.
Currently, he said there were several ‘pockets’ of Fulani settlements in the area, using their cattle to graze and destroying farms in the communities, saying more than 30,000 cattle had settled on the Wenchi lands.
Rev Ameyaw-Akumfi called on the security services and the Wenchi Traditional Council to drive the nomads and their cattle away, saying their stay and unscrupulous activities threatened the prevailing peace and security of the area.
He said the affected communities had reported the activities of the nomads to the Wenchi police and the fire service, as well as the Wenchi Traditional Council, saying ‘poor’ victims required urgent assistance as they had no other alternative source of livelihood, besides their farms.
Rev Ameyaw-Akumfi called on wealthy people, philanthropic individuals and organisations as well as corporate bodies to come to the aid of the farmers to enable them to re-plant their farms too.