This is because the farmers cannot convey the foodstuff to the market in Ho, as transport owners have withdrawn their vehicles from the road due to their rugged nature.

The Communities are Kpenoe, Takla and Hodzo.

As a result of the situation, middlemen go to the communities by foot and on bicycles to buy the farm produce very cheap and resell at the market at very exorbitant prices, thereby making huge profits.

Togbe Kotoku XI, paramount chief of Kpenoe, described the situation as highly demoralising to the farmers, saying “they cannot earn a decent income from what they produce any longer.”

He said the bad state of the road had also contributed to a rising trend of teacher absenteeism in the schools.

“The teachers can no longer commute from Ho to our communities, and those who do so by foot or on bicycles get too tired to teach,” Togbe Kotoku explained.

From Alberto Mario Noretti, Kpenoe