Hohoe rice farmers get US$35m credit

17/09/09

Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru

FIFTY eight farmers in Hohoe in the Volta Region are benefiting from a US$35-million facility from the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) to produce about 2,000 tonnes of rice this year.
MiDA will provide credit facilities to the farmers (nine nuclear farmers and 49 outgrowers) to prepare their farms, and buy fertilisers, pesticides and weedicides. It will also provide extension services and assist the farmers to process their yields.
Finatradegroup, a major player in the rice industry in Ghana and other places in Africa, has entered into an agreement with MiDA to buy all the rice that will be produced.
Consequently, Finatradegroup and MiDA have collaborated in the design of the project, processing and packaging of the rice.
ACDI VOCA, an agronomist company, is supervising the project, while Gbi Rural Bank Limited is offering the credit facility to the farmers on behalf of MiDA.
During a field visit to the rice farms, which are spread across the Hohoe Municipality, on Tuesday by the Director of Corporate Affairs of Finatradegroup, Mr John Awuni, the farmers were seen working on their various farms.
The rice farms are located at Ve, Lolobi, Gbi, Akpafu and Koloenu, among other areas.
Briefing the media, a senior agronomist and representative of ACDI VOCA, Dr Ben Dadzie, said reports available to MiDA indicated that local rice farmers faced problems of access to credit facilities, lack of inputs, inability to process their produce and above all the absence of a ready market.
To address the situation, he said, MiDA contacted the management of Finatradegroup and requested them to be the sole buyers of the rice produce, which they agreed to.
That partnership, Dr Dadzie said, encouraged MiDA to initiate the project since there was a ready market for the rice produce.
He said if the project succeeded, it would be replicated in the other regions of the country.
Dr Dadzie said the agronomy experts supervising the work of the farmers ensured that the farmers applied the appropriate fertilisers, weedicides and pesticides.
Addressing the farmers, Mr Awuni reassured them of the readiness of Finatradegroup to buy their produce no matter the quantity, as a way of encouraging local rice farmers to grow more to feed the nation.
“Your market is 100 per cent assured. There is a guaranteed market for you. There is no limit for the quantity you are going to produce. What you [farmers] have started is supposed to succeed,” he assured the farmers.
Mr Awuni asked the farmers to produce quality rice and assured them that Finatradegroup would offer them the best prices for their produce.
However, he said since the rice was for local consumption, the price would have to be within the means of local consumers for mutual benefit to the farmers, consumers and Finatradegroup.
Mr Awuni, who is also the President of the Ghana Rice Interprofessional Body (GRIB), made a commitment to help the farmers to have drying floors for their produce.