Once a thriving hub of dry-season tomato production, the Kassena-Nankana areas of Ghana’s Upper East Region have fallen into economic despair, pushing many youth into illegal mining, or galamsey. According to a new analysis by development communication expert and former tomato farmer Francis Atayure Abirigo, the collapse of the region’s agricultural economy is not an accident but a direct result of decades of policy failure and political inaction.
In the 1980s and 1990s, dry-season farming was the backbone of local livelihoods across communities such as Doba, Kandiga, Mirigu, and Manyoro. Tomatoes were king, supported by a vibrant market network of women traders—known as “Tomato Queens”—from southern Ghana. The Tono and Vea irrigation dams formed the core of this ecosystem, sustaining production that fed the nation and powered a self-sufficient rural economy.
That system began to unravel in the late 1990s, when Ghanaian traders started bypassing local farmers to source tomatoes from neighboring Burkina Faso. The reason was simple: Burkinabè tomatoes were firmer, more resilient, and less prone to post-harvest losses than the softer Ghanaian varieties.
What began as a market preference became a structural rupture, known locally as the “Wagyea Tomato Business.” Ghanaian farmers faced mounting losses as harvests rotted without buyers. Investments turned into debt, confidence eroded, and many abandoned their farms.
While Ghana’s tomato sector collapsed, Burkina Faso made a strategic pivot—investing in tomato processing factories to stabilize markets, reduce waste, and create jobs. Ghana, in contrast, saw key infrastructure like the Pwalugu Tomato Factory and the Tono and Vea dams fall into underperformance or abandonment.
Mr. Abirigo, who grew up farming in the region, argues that successive governments—both the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP)—reduced the crisis to partisan rhetoric rather than treating it as a national priority.
“When traders began sourcing from Burkina Faso, the dominant argument focused on market freedom and cross-border trade rights,” he said. “While economically valid, this perspective ignored the long-term consequences for domestic production.”
The consequences, he notes, have extended beyond agriculture. With farming no longer viable, many youth have migrated into illegal mining.
“This shift is not simply about income. It reflects a failure of opportunity,” Mr. Abirigo said. “Where there were once farms, there are now pits. Where there was once food production, there is now environmental degradation and, too often, loss of life. This is not just an agricultural issue. It is a national development crisis.”
Mr. Abirigo is calling for urgent policy action to revive the industry, including the operationalization of tomato processing factories, investment in research to develop durable seed varieties, modernization of irrigation infrastructure, and the establishment of guaranteed pricing systems similar to cocoa.
“Ghana does not lack the capacity to revive its tomato industry,” he said. “What it lacks is deliberate and coordinated policy action. We once had the land, the knowledge, the labour, and the market. What we lacked was sustained policy vision. The time for reflection has passed. What is needed now is action.”
