Members of Parliament (MPs) have called for suitable credit schemes for farmers for increased agricultural productivity.
They said farmers have had to contend with huge interest rates on loans contracted and some have had to lose their lands over non-payment of loans and this was hindering the growth of agricultural sector.
The MPs were contributing to a statement on the negative consequences of commercial loans to farmers made on the floor of the House on Friday.
Mr. Joseph Osei-Owusu, NPP MP for Bekwai, said young men in rural areas interested in small-scale vegetable farming were forced to look for quick loans with huge interest rates, which became difficult to re-pay.
He asked district assemblies to evolve credit schemes with no interest rates to support farmers in the rural areas.
Dr. Ahmed Yakubu Alhassan, NDC MP for Mion, said the issue of access to credit for farmers and its management was not one to be left to any one particular group but it should be tackled by all stakeholders to deal effectively with the problem.
Mr. David Hennric Yeboah, NPP MP for Afigya Sekyere East, who made the statement, said: "increasingly, the banks are demanding the use of farmers' lands as collateral for their loans."
"What this means is that when the farmer defaults, inevitably, the land would be seized by the bank with the result that farmers are increasingly being rendered landless."
He said called on government to intervene and save farmers from the situation.
He also called for the provision of storage facilities and processing units to farmers to save their produce from perishing.
Earlier, Mr. Joe Gidisu, Minister of Roads and Highways, who was in the House to respond to questions, said the Ministry was concentrating on sealing both the Tamale-Salaga and Yendi-Bimbilla roads.
The Minister, who was answering a question on when the Bimbilla to Salaga highway road would be tarred, said the sealing project would link Bimbilla and Salaga to Tamale.
Mr. Gidisu said the 76 kilometre Bimbilla-Salaga road was a regional road linking Bimbilla, the district capital of the Nanumba South district to Salaga, the district capital of the Gonja East district.
He said that stretch of road was gravel surfaced and in poor condition but under periodic maintenance programme in 2010, the drainage structures would be constructed on the worst sections of the road and the whole stretch graded to make it motorable.
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