Lifeline For Cotton Industry

To revive Ghana's cotton sector, government has announced a project dubbed 'the White Gold Campaign,' which will benefit about 100,000 farmers.

Ghana's cotton industry is to be revamped after it nearly collapsed.

The impressive world market price of cotton is also expected to be an extra advantage particularly during the 2011 cotton season.

Sources at the Ministry of Trade and Industry have hinted that the White Gold campaign would be launched this week with a series of events.

The campaign would start with community durbars for farmers in zones in the three Northern regions and climaxed with launching ceremonies at Tumu, Nanton and Guru from February 21 to March 24, 2011.

As part of plans to improve the cotton industry, the Ministry of Trade says two major policy have been adopted including the assignment of zones to private companies to produce cotton, while the mandate of the Ghana Cotton Company Limited of producing cotton seed has been scraped.

The private companies include Wienco Ghana Limited, Olam Ghana Limited, Plexus and Amajaro Ghana Limited.

However plans to revamp the almost collapsed cotton industry in the view of experts would only succeed if some recommendations such as the formation of cotton producer groups; pre-financing of farmers and subsidies on agricultural inputs to reduce cost of production as well as the introduction of a crop rotation system with food crops that would help the restoration of soil fertility are given serious attention.

According to Nana Akrasi Sarpong, Acting Director of Communications and Public Affairs at the Ministry of trade and Industry, government is working closely with development partners such as the World Bank and African Development Bank to develop the appropriate institutional and regulatory framework to support a rapid revival of the sector.

He therefore urged all stakeholders to corporate with government to make reforms in the cotton sector.

Cotton is mostly grown in the three northern regions of Ghana, namely Northern, Upper East, Upper West region and farmers have in the past complained about the lack of a ready market for their produce, inability to access soft loans and lack of commitment on the part of government.

By Emelia Ennin Abbey