The field which showed a lot of promise has been completely destroyed as all the fruits have been affected.

Mr Nibadingu Dassah, 67, the owner of the farm, said his challenge is on how to fend for his family through the lean season.

He said he and his family spent over GHC 5,000.00 on the 100 acre land with the hope that they would harvest, sell and use part of the money to buy maize for the family.

"Now that everything is rotten, I do not know what will happen to me and my family because we pumped all our investment into the water melon business hoping for a bumper harvest so that we can use parts of the proceeds to buy food stuff for the family", he said.

Mr Dassah said his only experience in water melon farming was last year, adding that even though it was on a small scale, the harvest was good, hence his decision to do it on a large scale this year.

Mr Hudu Abu, the Upper West Regional Crops Officer for the Department of Agriculture, said the farmer did not seek technical advice as what affected his effort was wrong timing on the cultivation of the creeping crop.

He said water melon does not need too much water and planting during the heavy rains period must be avoided.

Mr Abu urged all farmers to seek technical support from the Department of Agriculture whenever they ventured into the cultivation of a new crop.