As the hopes of many farmers to expand their farms continue to suffer jolts as a result of the lack of capital to undertake such projects, affected farmers continue to express regret over their predicament.
One of such affected farmers who cultivates rice and vegetables at Kasuya near Asutsuare in the Shai Osudoku district of the Greater Accra Region, Mr. Daniel Dasunor has been sharing his experiences with Rite FM.
The rice sector is gradually playing a visible role in the national economy of Ghana due to increasing dietary shift (i.e. from the traditional – kenkey, fufu, Gari etc.) to rice, particularly in the urban centres.
However, current output of the country’s rice production sector is unable to meet this increasing local demand.
Mr. Daniel Dasunor in an interview with Captain Adabugar, host of Rite FM’s Morning Ride during the ‘Akuafo Sesen’ segment of the show regretted his inability to expand farms owing largely to the lack of funds to undertake such a venture.
“It is my intention to expand my rice and vegetable farms but the lack of capital for the expansion is my constraint,” he bemoaned.
To the challenged farmer, difficulties faced by he and his colleagues to access credit facilities continue to be the bane of most farmers.
“I find it very difficult to access credit facilities from financial institutions because they refuse to grant loans to farmers and this has become a serious hurdle to my efforts of going on a large scale commercial farming which has been my dream,” he lamented.
Mr. Dasunor also blamed the unreliable recent climatic conditions for the woes of the farmers.
“The climate change in relation to the rainfall pattern is another challenge as it is no longer reliable. Ghana is a rain-fed agricultural country which depends heavily on rain for production,” Mr. Danusor said adding as he lamented about the challenges farmers face in the course of marketing their produce.
Estimates vary, but it will not be an exaggeration to assume that more than 70% of the rice consumed in Ghana is imported (estimated cost of $450m each year).
According to industry experts, given Ghana’s favourable agro-ecological conditions and other productive resources, the country can produce more than 300,000 tonnes of rice yearly for local consumption.
Ghana has great potential to expand its present rice output if its vast area of inland valleys and swamps is efficiently exploited.
Source: Prince Paul Amuzu/www.ritefmonline.org/princeamuzu667@gmail.com
