The Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG) has decried the tremendous effect the suspension of the reversal of the benchmark values would have on local producers and manufacturers; particularly rice farmers. PFAG argued that rice farmers in the country risk losing the investments made in the last planting season. This is because tonnes of paddy rice from the farmers have been left in warehouses unsold. The situation could be particularly dire for farmers in the Upper East Region.
Speaking on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East, the National Project Coordinator of the Association Dr. Charles Nyaabah said due to the relatively lower prices of foreign rice on the Ghanaian market, local farmers are unable to sell their produce. He added that organisations like the National Buffer Stock company which is expected to mop up huge quantities of rice from the farmers have failed to do so. This means that farmers and farmer groups have had to compete in the open market, a situation they describe as a losing battle.
“Farmers have a huge amount of paddy rice aggregators are not able to buy. This is because, when they [aggregators] buy, they are not able to sell in the market because of the price. The rice that is imported that they flood our market with, it is not because they produce quality, it is because the countries where these rice are coming from, the farmer receive subsidies. They receive market support to help them sell it higher than their cost of production”.
“Then, it gets to Ghana, and we again decided to give discount in the form of benchmark values. Our position is very clear, this is a country where we say we want to do industrialization by providing rice millers with processors, by supporting farmers with fertilizers and by building warehouses. People went in to produce, now you have given subsidies for people to come and flood our markets with rice,” he lamented.
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He stressed that should government fail to reverse the benchmark values, “we stand the risk of collapsing our rice industry which will go down with more than 100,000 workers who are currently engaged“.
Dr. Nyaabah suggested a system where government’s investment into the local rice industry gradually increases while permits for the importation of foreign rice gradually decrease. He said should this happen, the country’s rice industry would soon be able to produce enough rice to meet demands citing Nigeria as an example.
Out of Ghana’s rice consumption of over 1.3 million metric tonnes, the Upper East Region produces 123,000 metric tonnes of the 465,000 metric tonnes produced locally. “If you look at this, it means that with the little investment that we will do in this area, you would not see the youth go to Southern Ghana for jobs,” he said.
Dr. Nyaabah said the Upper East Region comes next after the Volta Region in the production of rice. The National Project Coordinator of the Association called on government to support farmers with combine harvesters adding that “there are many farmers who left the rice farming because after farming, harvesting was a problem. The cost of a combine harvester in 2021 was between ghc220,000 and ghc250,000”.
He also called on the government to expand road infrastructure in that area while also expanding access to irrigation facilities. Dr. Nyaabah said should government make these investments, the rice farmers would be able to increase investment in the area.
A1radioonline.com|101.1 MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
