Do not leave cotton production in the hands of foreign companies

Wa, March, 20, GNA - The Cotton Farmers Association of Ghana says it is unhappy about government's decision to give the mandate of cotton production in the country to foreign companies. They said the policy would not only kill local enterprises but it would also bring in its wake unemployment among workers on the pay roll of local cotton companies. Local Cotton Companies would also face the challenges of paying back loans they contracted from the banks since they would no longer be in business.

Osafo Patrick Apullah, Vice President of the Association raised these concerns in an interview with the Ghana News Agencies in Wa on Sunday. He called on the government to review its decision by allowing local companies to compete with their foreign counterparts favourably in order not jeopardise the future of the industry. The policy, if allowed to take of, would create more unemployment in the in the country adding: 93What would be the fate of all those workers if such companies were denied the opportunity to produce the crop again?"

Osafo Apullah appealed to government to take a clue from what happened at the Aveyime Rice Project where a foreigner duped the country of million of dollars.

He called on all foreign companies that had been given the mandate to produce cotton to hold a forum with farmers to fix prices for lint cotton before they went to cotton production. Any failure on the part of the companies to hold such a forum would not be in the interest of them because farmers would feel reluctant to cultivate the crop. 20 March 11