ANTI-BUSH fire volunteer squads have been trained to police farmlands and other vegetated areas in the Saboba district of the Northern Region.
This follows the emergence of the dry season, which is usually characterised by wild fires started mostly by game hunters and farmers, who have remained stuck to outmoded farming practices.
The volunteers, numbering 75, would operate in Wayu Chakpong, Kpanjoli, Nachawuni, Nabuak and Gbadagban to ensure that no fires wet set to the bushes in those communities during the entire period of ‘harmattan’.
Uncontrolled bush fires have in past years led to the destruction of large tracts of farmlands and forested areas, thereby destroying crops and important valuable trees, such as shea nut, mango and dawadawa.
The Evangelical Presbyterian Development and Relief Agency (EPDRA) in Saboba organised the training for the volunteers in line with efforts towards safeguarding agriculture in the area.
Speaking at a ceremony to pass out the volunteers, the programme manager of EPDRA in Saboba, Mr Godson Gbate noted that EPDRA was concerned about the negative impact of bushfires on the environment and food security.
He said aside the destruction caused to forest resources and crops, bush fires reduce soil fertility, degrade the land and expose the area to desertification.
Mr Gbate mentioned that EPDRA had intensified its programme to train fire volunteer squads in various communities due to the approach of the dry season.
“We want to protect farmlands so as to preserve the soil and the crops that were being cultivated during the dry season,” he explained.
The programme manager again mentioned that the organisation had been working towards helping farmers to access markets and get fair prices for their produce.
“We collaborated with the Association of Church Development Projects (ACDEP) to initiate a supply chain project referred to as Markets Access Project,” he explained.
“Farmer groups were formed under the project and were supported to produce and sell a variety of crops, with soya being the most cultivated,” he further mentioned.
The Yendi Municipal Fire Officer, Mr Alfred Sulemana Braimah noted that environmental problems such as drought, desertification, global warming, floods and soil infertility were all the result of human activity.
He therefore pleaded with the chiefs and people of the Northern Region to avoid practices that increased the occurrence of these problems, such as illegal logging, bush burning, use of unapproved agro-chemicals and excessive cutting of trees for charcoal production.
Mr Braimah also entreated metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies to enact and implement by-laws that would outlaw bush burning and other harmful environmental practices.
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