For many farmers in the Upper West Region, the mention of Farmer Service Centres represents more than just another political promise or government intervention; it is a hope of a better fortune for them.
It was a promise of relief from years of struggles to access agricultural mechanisation services, such as ploughers, combining harvesters, planters, and sprayers, among others, which were critical to agricultural productivity.
Across communities such as Jonga in the Wa Municipality, Daffiama in the Daffiama-Bussie-Issa District, and Serekpere in the Nadowli-Kaleo District, farmers were anticipating the establishment of the centres.
They believed these centres would help reduce production costs, increase yields, and improve farmers’ livelihoods and incomes.
The long search for tractors
A major challenge for farmers in the region was the scarcity of mechanisation services, particularly ploughing and harvesting equipment.
Every cropping season, tractors were catered like bags of maize in trucks from the southern part of Ghana to the Upper West Region to provide mechanisation services to farmers, but their access still became problematic.
At Jonga in the Wa Municipality, farmers describe a frustrating reality where securing a tractor could take days or even weeks, often delaying planting activities and affecting crop yields.
Mr Daubile Alhassan Ibrahim, Assembly Member for the Jonga Electoral Area, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that the inadequate number of tractors in the area had made farming increasingly difficult.
“Sometimes, when you even have the money, it is difficult for you to get a tractor to go to your farm. You will be holding the money while looking for a tractor”, he explained.
The challenge, he said, frequently leads to delays in land preparation, affecting the timing of planting and ultimately reducing agricultural output.
Similarly, Mr Edward Ziema Kpieonoma, a Unit Committee Member at Daffiama in the Daffiama-Bussie-Issa District, said farmers in that community sometimes spent entire days pursuing tractor services without accessing them.
“A farmer can sometimes wake up as early as 4:00 A.M. in search of a tractor to plough his or her farm but will still not get it.
The queues are usually very long because the available tractors are not many”, he explained.
Women farmers bear the greatest burden
For women farmers, the inadequate number of tractors in the region was not only an agricultural challenge but also an economic and social burden.
Mr Daubile indicated that women farmers suffered the most because they had less influence in competing with men for the few available tractors.
Madam Kende Aziz, a farmer at Jonga, said many women had the capacity and willingness to cultivate larger acreages but were constrained by the high cost and scarcity of mechanisation services.
“There are times when you want to farm many acres but cannot do it because of financial constraints.
The high cost of ploughing, and the difficulty you go through to get a tractor to farm for you becomes difficult just because you are a woman”, she said.
Another farmer, Madam Salima Osman, said women were always at the tail end of the queues waiting for ploughing services and sometimes had to wait several days to access tractors because men were given priority.
“Sometimes you will follow someone to the farm to hire their tractor, only to find out that there are men lined up waiting for that same tractor.
It takes days before you can get access to a tractor as a woman in this community”, she lamented.
Some women farmers said the situation had compelled them to reduce the size of their farms despite increasing demand for food and growing household responsibilities.
Madam Agnes Bara, a farmer at Daffiama, said women were disproportionately affected by the inadequate number of tractors in the area due to the patriarchal attitude of the people.
She expressed worry that the challenge had forced some women to abandon farming altogether, which used to serve as their major source of livelihood.
Post-harvest losses
The mechanisation challenge extended beyond ploughing. It also posed a serious burden on farmers in harvesting their produce.
Madam Rashidatu Iddrisu, a farmer in Jonga, said the scarcity of combine harvesters often left crops exposed to post-harvest losses.
She explained that delays in harvesting increase the risk of produce being destroyed by animals, bushfires, or adverse weather conditions.
For farmers who depended entirely on seasonal harvests for income, such losses could have devastating consequences on their livelihoods and income.
Madam Agness Bara observed that many young men were leaving farming for illegal small-scale mining (galamsey), partly due to the challenges in the agricultural sector, including accessing mechanisation services.
The cost of farming beyond mechanisation
Beyond mechanisation, rising input costs were creating additional pressure on farmers, which continued to adversely affect the cultivating power of women farmers.
Madam Esther Bongamwine, a farmer at Daffiama, noted that many women struggle to afford both mechanisation services and farm inputs.
Currently, ploughing an acre of land costs between GH₵350.00 and GH₵400.00, while a bag of fertiliser costs between GH₵400.00 and GH₵500.00.
Also, the cost of improved maize seed ranges between GH₵300.00 and GH₵350.00 per acre.
These costs, she said, placed quality agricultural production beyond the reach of many smallholder farmers, especially women.
A potential game changer
At Serekpere, Madam Cedonia Kantayen, a smallholder woman farmer, told the GNA that farming remains the main source of food and income for many households.
However, she noted that access to tractors, labour, and farm inputs continued to be a major obstacle.
To address these challenges, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), ahead of the 2024 general election, pledged to establish Farmer Service Centres across the country to modernise agriculture.
However, after one and a half years of the NDC government coming to office, the initiative had yet to take full effect.
The vision only began to take shape on March 21, 2026, when President John Dramani Mahama launched Ghana’s first Farmer Service Centre at Takoratwene in Afram Plains.
At the launch, the President described the initiative as “a strategic national investment” that signals a transition from subsistence farming to a mechanised and commercially viable agricultural system.
The farmers, therefore, appealed to the government to fast-track the implementation of the Farmer Service Centres in the region.
They believed the centres would reduce the drudgery associated with farming by providing reliable mechanisation services for ploughing, planting, and harvesting.
Some of the women also called for dedicated tractor services for women farmers to ensure equitable access and eliminate the competition they currently face from men.
Toward agricultural transformation
Many farmers in the Upper West Region previously depended on bull-powered farming systems, but cattle theft in recent years has virtually extincted that practice.
As a result, farmers now depend almost entirely on tractors because using hoes and cutlasses for large-scale farming is extremely labour-intensive.
Therefore, with the promise of Farmer Service Centres, farmers in the region hope not only to transform their livelihoods and income, but also their farming.
In the Upper West Region, the Wa East and Daffiama-Bussie-Issa Districts had been selected among the first 50 locations for the project.
Mr Adamu Shaibu, the Wa East District Chief Executive (DCE), told the GNA that the Assembly had secured a 15-acre parcel of land near Bulenga for the project.
He said the district was largely agrarian and that the difficulty in farmers’ access to mechanisation services for ploughing, planting and harvesting was affecting their farming activities.
Mr Shaibu lamented that several hundred acres of maize farms were recently burnt in the district due to the inability of the farmers to access threshers on time to harvest the produce
“Many people in this area are not able to access tractor services due to their scarcity and high cost, but if the Farmer Service Centre is established and managed by the Assembly, it will reduce the cost so that the less privileged can also procure their services”, he explained.
Similarly, Mr James Wor, the DCE for Daffiama-Bussie-Issa, said land had been secured at Kajikperi for the establishment of the centre in the district and documentation processes were underway.
He noted that more than 70 per cent of the district’s population depended on farming, producing crops such as yams, sorghum, beans, maize and other cereals.
“So, if eventually it (the Farmer Service Centre) comes, it will help a lot, and everybody is praising the government for the good initiative”, Mr Wor stated.
More than machines
To farmers in the region, these centres, when established, would not merely provide tractors and machinery.
They would represent an opportunity to expand production, reduce poverty, improve food security, create jobs, and restore confidence in agriculture as a viable livelihood.
As another farming season approached, many farmers remained hopeful that the centres would arrive soon enough to transform their fields and, ultimately, their futures.
A GNA feature by Philip Tengzu