The  Evangelical Presbyterian Development and Relief Agency (EPDRA)  has organised  a day’s refresher training workshop for  fire volunteers in the Yendi Municipality to avert the annual ritual of bushfires which destroy farms in their communities.    

The participants were drawn from Yendi, Kulinkpanga, Nalogu, Malzeri Kpatia and Bagabani .    

The EPDRA Manager,  Mr Joshua Nyaaba said the relief agency in collaboration with the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) and the National Disaster Management Organisation are facilitating the training of the volunteers.   

Mr Nyaaba called on the authorities to identify and punish those who set the bushfires especially during the hamattan season.   

He noted that farmers can not continue toiling to produce food only to be destroyed by fire.   

Mr Nyaaba said the fight against bushfires was in line with the global efforts to arrest climate change.   

He called on the district assemblies to support the training of anti-bush fire volunteers in all communities.   

Mr Nyaaba commended the people of Kpatia and  surrounding
communities for not burning the bush for more than five years and called on other communities to emulate their good attitude towards the  environment.   

Mr Mohammed Aminu Yahaya, an officer with the GNFS who took the participants through the training  asked them to educate their communities about fire prevention, fire control and making of fire belts around their farms.    

Kpatia Afa Alabani Abukari  a farmer indicated that the loss of vegetation cover resulting from bushfire encourages water and wind erosion that tend to destroy arable lands.     

He said bushfires were normally caused through the activities of hunters, herdsmen  and cigarette smokers.     

Afa Abukari said although the Northern Region accounted for more than five per cent of the country’s food crops, and the leading producers of millet, sorghum, yam, cowpea, maize, rice, cotton and soya beans in significant volume,  a large chunk of the produce were destroyed by bushfires.

DS