“Adopt appropriate measures for rice production”

24-01-09

THE Ghana Rice Inter-Professional Body has called on local rice farmers to adopt the appropriate measures to produce quality rice to meet the demands of consumers.
It addition, it said rice processors should process quality rice with the highest hygienic and quality standards to meet the taste of the consuming public.
The Executive Secretary of GRIB, Mr Fedelis Avogo, who made the call at the opening of the fourth annual general assembly in Accra yesterday, stressed the need for a strong political will, a regulatory system and market channel to boost rice production in the country.
He said the issue of high operational costs to take care of inputs, labour and capital were killing the industry, saying that in spite of those bottlenecks, the body had been able to build the capacity of its members to address those problems.
“Over the years, GRIB has tried to manage these bottlenecks by building the capacities of its members to do bulk purchasing and proposal writing for credit, record keeping as we modernise farm practices. It is, however, apparent that building of capacities in this strategic industry alone begs the question in offering solutions,” he said.
Mr Avogo noted that members had found it difficult to stabilise prices because of the failure to enforce regulations, adding that due to the over-liberalised economy, traders bought inputs from different sources.
That, he said, had resulted in the quotation of different prices on the market, and, therefore, stressed the need for farmers “to harmonise prices in a symbiotic industry if we should achieve price stability”.
The Chairman of the Northern Region Rice Growers Association, Alhaji Von Salifu, who chaired the function, appealed to the new government to work with farmers to improve local food production.
According to him, farmers would support policies that would boost agriculture, and urged the government to put in place measures that would ensure that farmers got improved seedlings.
He expressed concern about the high interest rates charged by the banks and other financial institutions, and appealed to the government to intervene in the matter.
The President of GRIB, Mr Ralph Mends-Odro, called on members to work together to ensure the success of the body.
A representative of the French Development Agency, Mr Thomas Gubernatis, urged the body to identify alternative sources of funding its activities.
The General Agriculture Workers Union and Technoserve, in their solidarity messages, pledged to support rice farmers to ensure that they produced quality rice.
At the assembly meeting, new executives would be elected, while a code of ethics, among other things, would be adopted.