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Rice farmers in Fumbisi, in the southern Builsa district of the Upper Oriente region, are asking the government to support them with combine harvesters to harvest their rice this year.
The rice harvest would start in November and continue until January, depending on the variety of the crop and the availability of equipment.
Mr. Richard Akuka, a rice farmer in Fumbisi, made the appeal on behalf of his colleagues in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on the sidelines of the inauguration of the Builsa Sur Commercial Farmers Association.
He said that the government through the Savannah Area Agricultural Productivity Improvement Project (SAPIP) of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), supported farmers in the area with seeds and fertilizers, adding that the SAPIP initiative had boosted its production.
“The government has supported us with fertilizers and seeds, we have worked well and now we are asking for help to be able to harvest. We need harvesters. Even if it will be on credit, so we can pay it back after the sale or if we get good yields and we can’t harvest and it dries in the field, buyers won’t buy. “
Mr. Akuka emphasized that “Our main challenge is the lack of harvesters, because if we are able to do all this work, and in the end we do not harvest, it means that our suffering will be in vain.”
Responding to the farmers’ call in a separate interview, Mr. Wilson Doku, a value chain and agribusiness specialist working with SAPIP, said: “As part of the project goal, we are establishing mechanization service centers, from the land development to processing. “
He said that the Centers would be driven by the private sector, “We will announce it for the private sector to apply. Although it will be subsidized, we will give them a deadline to pay, ”he told the farmers.
Mr. Doku said that the procurement processes had started and the contracts were awarded to begin the work, “We have high hopes that Builsa Sur will be one of the Districts that will benefit, we only need a person from the private sector to lead that process. “he added. .
He said his team would ensure that the private individual would be stationed in the District for farmers to benefit from the equipment, “Hopefully, before the end of the year, all the implements will arrive. The harvest has been one of the biggest challenges.”
