Floods have destroyed a total of 1,200 acres of vegetable farms in Anloga in the Volta Region.

Subsequently, some 600 farmers are now looking into the future with despair.

The District Director of Agriculture, Franklin Agbove, told the Daily Graphic in the coastal town last Tuesday that the severe flood, which followed a downpour that lasted the whole day on Friday, September 12, destroyed tomatoes on a large scale.

“Shallots, onions, and peppers were also lost to the floods to some extent,” he added.

Mr Agbove said the vegetables were at the fruiting stage when the floods set in.

He also said that the tomato season was over, but the remaining shallots and onions on the fields could be harvested in December.

However, he cautioned, there would be a shortfall in the harvests of onions, and that might lead to imports of the vegetable again from Burkina Faso and Niger.

“Meanwhile, the farmers, including a large number of women, were faced with huge income and job losses,” he said.

Mr. Agbove appealed to the government and non-governmental organisations in agriculture to come to the aid of the farmers with seeds and other inputs to enable them to continue with their farming.

Most of the farms already have surface pumps, sprinkler heads, and wells.

Some of the farmers said they accessed loans to cultivate the crops, and it was heartbreaking for them to be in that situation now.

Anloga, known for the massive production of vegetables, is below sea level and susceptible to floods.