MAASI NEWS

Upper Manya Krobo District: Rice Farmers cry for Rice Miller

The leader of Lormmava Rice Farmers, Mr. Atigah Nyarku, from the Upper Manya district, in the Eastern Region of Ghana, has lamented that, the major problem facing rice farmers in the district is the lack of a rice miller required to process the large tons of rice produced by farmers, every  year for more than a decade now. Mr. Atigah mentioned this during a capacity building workshop held by Rite 90.1 Fm under the Mobilizing Action for Agricultural Sector Improvement (MAASI) project in collaboration with the Upper Manya District Assembly held at the Shai Hills Hotel conference hall in Asesewa.

Rice farming has been a major source of livelihood to a large population of farmers in the Upper Manya District due to the large stretch of the Volta lake basin running up north of the geographical location of the district, to the south.Per this advantage therefore, many women and even students engage in effective rice farming.

According to Mr. Atigah Nyarku, rice produced in the district is transported to Akuse, in the ShaiOsudoku District, another rice farming community,which is about 158km away, in order to process the harvested goods into a consumable finish before transporting back for sales. The leader explained that “this is the reason our rice produced here is a little costly for buyers. If we reduce the price in the face of these difficult, we the farmers will run at great loss and may be forced out of business which, we cannot afford”.

According to him the “up and down” process of transportation is only not costly but stressful and time wasting. He is therefore, calling on any concerned private or public institution to come to the aid of the Lomnava Rice Farmers Association.

But responding to Mr. Atigah’s, concerns, the district coordinating director, Mr. James Armah Tandoh advised farmers to form Farmer Based Organizations which would enable them purchase these millers as a group. He however stressed the need for them to produce enough so that the millers are not bought and become redundant because there is not much to be done with it. He added however, that plans for a miller for the affected farmers were “far advanced” and that very soon, farmers at Upper Manya would soon be milling their rice in their own district.

The District Chief Executive for Upper Manya, Honourable Joseph Tetteh Angmor appreciated the concerns of the farmers and agreed that indeed, transporting rice to other centers for milling reduced the quality of the finished product and agreed that having a miller would reduce the cost of production of the farmers.

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button
Close