THE government has made available GH¢5 million to support cotton farmers in northern Ghana to revamp the ailing cotton industry.
The package includes GH¢3.5 million direct support, which covers land preparation and provision of seeds and fertilisers, and GH¢1.5 million to be used as general subsidy.
The Vice-President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, who made this known when he launched a cotton support programme in Tamale on Saturday, said the intervention would increase cotton yield to about 10,000 metric tonnes, with about 4,500 metric tonnes of lint.
By the end of this year, the industry is expected to generate more than $8 million in income.
Mr Mahama said the programme would cover a significant number of the 60,000 cotton farmers in the three northern regions, indicating that in the next four years all the beneficiary farmers would be covered.
The Vice-President said support would be extended to private cotton companies and other stakeholders, adding that “the success of the current support will determine how the government will progress”.
He urged farmers to take advantage of the intervention and start ploughing the land for cultivation, stressing that “the money is ready. Don’t wait for it, go ahead”.
Mr Mahama said the vision of the government was to ensure that Ghana became a net exporting country in all sub-sectors of agriculture, adding that it had made significant strides in that direction and was likely to achieve 100,000 metric tonnes of maize surplus this year.
The Vice-President said rice importation had reduced considerably from 500,000 metric tonnes to 400,000 metric tonnes this year and expressed the hope that more local rice production would drastically reduce the importation.
For his part, the Northern Regional Minister, Mr Moses Mabengba, noted that the golden age of prosperity in the Northern Region occurred in the 1970s and since then no massive investment in the rice and cotton industries had taken place.
According to him, the dug-out dams built in the 1960s had never seen any rehabilitation, making them easily washed away or silted.
The regional minister stated that the north was struggling to produce sorghum to meet the demand of the breweries, which stood at about 6,000 metric tonnes.
Mr Mabengba expressed the hope that the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) would become the vehicle for transforming northern agriculture and the general environment of the area.
He called on the people of the region to turn the seven months of dry season which, hitherto, had been a season of “indolence, hunger and frustration which breed anger, intolerance and violence”, into seasons of productivity and plenty.
He lauded the launch of the cotton season and said it was in recognition of the pivotal role the private sector could play in fostering accelerated economic development and employment creation.
The Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Mahama Ayariga, lamented the inability of tomato farmers to produce enough to meet the needs of the Northern Star Tomato Factory at Pwalugu.
He said the government was working with all the stakeholders in the cotton industry to design a framework to address their problems.
He called for commitment, honesty and the zeal to direct the inputs for the purposes they were intended for.
The National Chairman of the Cotton Farmers Association of Ghana, Abdul-Rahman Mohammed, said low world market prices and high interest rates had been the bane of the industry.
He commended the government for the package and advised his colleague farmers against the diversion of farm inputs.
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