Rice farmers at Fumbisi and Gbedembilisi in the Upper East Region have welcomed moves by the Ghana National Buffer Stock Company to assist them with a ready market for their produce.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Buffer Stock Company, Hanan Abdul-Wahab, gave the assurance when he visited the Fumbisi Rice Valleys. He stated that measures are being put in place to ensure ready market within two weeks.
According to Mr. Hanan, the company is going to unleash its licensed buying companies to mop-up all rice produce that is going bad over lack of buyers.
He indicated that this forms part of government’s long-term plans to increase rice consumption in the country as a means to ending importation of rice thus creating a ready market for rice farmers.
“We are going to unleash our license buying companies to immediately come to this rice valleys and mop up the excess paddy rice grains here, so that, they can take them to nearby mills, mill them and supply to a government institution. We have over 1,350 registered license buying companies under the buffer stock company but we term this situation as an emergency one, so, we would have to carefully select those who are ready with resources to come immediately to buy and we hope to mop up all these rice out of the valleys within two weeks”, he said
Walk the Talk
However, the farmers have urged the company to walk the talk and ensure that the assurances materialise.
“Next year by this time, we shouldn’t be talking about this again. We know the government can do it and the President is able,” another added.
Source: eveningmailgh.com
