Commercial rice growers in the Builsa South District of the Upper East Region are concerned about how declining rice harvests will affect the people of Ghana.
Daniel Atulik, the Secretary of the Commercial Rice Farmers Association in Fumbisi said this when he spoke to Mark Smith on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show.
According to his cursory research, the country’s rice growing regions’ yields have decreased by about 70%, which is not good news for both farmers and consumers, Mr. Atulik said.
To this end, the government, he said, must, as a matter of urgency, tame the rising costs of inputs.
“The problems cut across from the farmers to the millers to the consumers. For we farmers, there are a number of things we would expect the government to do. The first thing is to have a rethink about the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) programme with regard to supporting farmers with inputs; especially the fertiliser. If you look at the whole country, rice yields dropped more than 70 percent. Apart from yield dropping, there has been a cut in production if you look at the large acreages that people used to do, especially in Builsa South. Government should look at highly subsidising fertiliser. I wouldn’t say they should give it to us for free, but they should subsidise it so that lots of commercial farmers can afford it and that would really help. It also looks like urea, which helps boost yields is really not in the system,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mr. Atulik welcomed the government’s commitment to boosting the local production capacity of some agricultural products.
“I actually listened to the budget reading. I have a copy of it as well and I am excited about what it says. Now the government wants to look at how best to cut down importation of rice and has put up a budget to really boost local production.”
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
