Maize, soybeans locked up at Yendi

Large quantities of maize, soybeans and groundnuts produced by farmers' groups last year under the Food Crops Development Project (FCDP) in the Yendi District are locked up due to lack of market.

As a result, the farmers are unable to pay back loans given to them by the FCDP channelled through the Agricultural Development Bank. The farmers expressed these concerns at a forum in Yendi organised by FCDP to educate them on the need to pay back their loans on time as well as to learn of their problems with the view to finding solutions to them.

The farmers are refusing to sell their produce because of poor prices that they anticipated would not meet the production cost and the interest rates on the loans they took from the bank For instance, a bag each of maize is sold at 120,000 cedis, soybean 168,000 cedis and groundnut 280,000 cedis.

Some of the farmers who asked questions appealed to the government to find market for their produce, subsidise agricultural inputs and make tractor and combine harvester services available to them at affordable prices to enable them to pay back the loans.

"The non-availability of these machinery, lack of subsidy on agricultural inputs and the high of cost of tractor services are a disincentive to agricultural production," they said.

Some of the farmers complained that even though they had applied "Wienco" brand of fertiliser on their crops under the supervision of Agricultural Extension Officers, yields had been poor and appealed to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) to research into this brand of fertilizer.

In an address read for him Major (Rtd) Courage Quashigah Minister for Food and Agriculture, tasked the Northern Regional Directorate of the Ministry to liaise with the Savannah Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) to monitor the efficacy of fertilizers brought to the region.

Maj. Quashigah announced that MOFA would re-launch the animal traction to supplement tractor services and also support farmers with credit facilities to enable them to purchase equipment and traction animals. He said MOFA was planning to support the establishment of District Plant Pools to be managed privately to assist farmers.

The Minister said FCDP would this year provide 20 grinding mills to women groups in the Yendi District to process grains and other cereals and also provide credits to 1,000 farmers in the area.

The Minister said MOFA was discussing with Nestle Ghana Limited and General Mills Ghana to buy maize produced by farmers while similar agreement was also going on with Guinness Ghana Limited to purchase sorghum from farmers for beer production.

Mr. Emmanuel K.T. Frempong, Project Coordinator of FCDP announced that the project was to disburse four million dollars to farmers groups in eight districts in the country during its five-year period of operation.

He said the project would provide agricultural inputs, storage facilities, processing equipment to farmers and support women to purchase farm produce for storage and distribution. It would also assist seed production and processors as well as research institutions to facilitate development of appropriate technologies for farmers to increase yields and incomes.

Mr. Emmanuel D. Eledi, the District Director of Agriculture, said 73 farmers groups comprising 854 farmers, would benefit from 83 million cedis this year to expand their farms under the project. The District Chief Executive, Mr Mohammad Habib Tijani, said because of the state of insecurity in the area, the Yendi District was not benefiting from the Social Investment Fund.

He assured the public that there was absolute peace in the area now, citing the return of five Cuban Doctors and NGOs who had deserted the area in the wake of the Dagbon crisis, as a sign of peace in the district.