Northern Farmers Assured Of Ready Market For Produce

Private firms and investors in agricultural business have assured farmers in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions of ready market for their produce.

Farmers have, therefore, been encouraged to produce large quantities of crops such as groundnuts, soybean, sorghum, cashew, mango and vegetables among others.

The assurance was given at a planning meeting with private firms and directors of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture  for the 2009 cropping season here on Saturday.

The meeting, organised by the Northern Rural Growth Programme (NRGP) was under the theme, “Moving investors up North to promote agric-business”. 

It attracted private firms and directors of investors from southern Ghana some of whom were visiting the Upper West Region for the first time.

The firms promised ready market for farmers' produce emphasising that they required large volumes of the crops for processing for both local and international markets.

The Enterprise Development Manager of Accra Brewery Company, Mr Peter Kutah, said the company intended using sorghum as alternative to barley for the brewing of beer and assured sorghum formers of a ready market.

Mr Kutah said that last year the company spent GH¢200,000 on sorghum cultivation and was expecting about 500 tonnes but it was not so.

He said the company was however, not deterred but determined to produce beer with sorghum, hence, the need for farmers to go into its large cultivation.

Mr Thomas Bello of Golden Web Limited, an oil seed processing factory at Kumasi said the company required 6,000 tonnes each of groundnuts and soybean annually to operate at full capacity.

He, therefore, urged soybean and groundnuts formers to increase their production to enable the company to meet its requirement.

Other companies required 75,000 tonnes each of sheanuts and soybeans and 5,000 tonnes of groundnuts annually to operate fully.

The national co-ordinator of NRGP, Roy Ayariga, said it was the first interface meeting to plan for the 2009 cropping seasons-both rainy and dry season, adding, “investors would have the opportunity to tour the Upper West Region to assess the agric-business potentials”.

Incentive packages under the NRGP, according to Mr. Ayariga include access to finance, improved infrastructure like roads, irrigation schemes, as well as markets.

Mr Ayariga said organised farmers are being supported with extension and research services as well as climatic data, land and water resources to ensure quality crop production.

He said the selection of crops for the 2009 season was based on their demand by various firms, adding, “it is worth noting that these crops meet some criteria like import substitution, comparative advantages of their production up north and the readiness of farmers to produce those crops”.

Mr Ayariga explained that the conventional approach whereby farmers produced what they desired hoping that there were buyers who equally wanted their produce had been found not to be feasible.  

“The two do not often coincide as the quality standards required by the market are not usually what rural farmers produce.”

He said the NRGP had adopted what he termed “the commodity value chain approach by which all processes of production — processing and marketing, till it got to the consumer are addressed.”

According to Mr. Ayariga when effective demand was established, “we can work to ensure that production meets the requirements of the market”.