By Austin Ofori Addo:
President for the Northern Region Cotton Growers Association, Mr. Abdul Rahman has said cotton growing in Ghana has really declined. This according to him is because cotton farmers have not benefited from government’s policies such as fertilizer subsidies for the past two years.
He intimated that cotton farmers were elated with the government’s step to provide them with subsidized fertilizer. He lamented however that that promise has not seen the light of day for the past two years, making things very difficult for them.
He accused the fertilizer producing companies of ripping them off by selling the fertilizer to them at very high cost which leaves them with huge investments but very little profit after harvesting.
Mr. Rahman added that cotton growers don’t have competent buying companies that are seriously into cotton processing, adding that buying companies did not pay them after buying the cotton from the farmers.
He said though the government has introduced some cotton processing cotton companies such as Amajaro in the Northern region and a few others in the Eastern and Western regions, these companies did not adequately patronize their products.
Worse still, Mr. Rahman accused the cotton companies of ripping them off by buying their products at very cheap cost. He said though they together with government sit down with the cotton buying companies and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to decide the price for the cotton, the companies still did not abide by these.
Source: ritefmonline.org
