US$75 million facility to boost rice production

Dutch international development outfit SNV Netherland Development Organisation has secured a US$75million funding from the USAID’s Financing Ghanaian Agriculture Project (FinGAP) to boost the capacity of local rice producers in the three northern regions.

The facility is expected to allow rice farmers to access the necessary funds and logistics to increase yields and produce quality grain that will meet international standards in order to attract investors, as well as improve the economic lives of farmers in the beneficiary regions.

The move affirms the Dutch organisation’s resolve to step up efforts to support agribusiness organisations in the beneficiary communities through financing the rice value chain to boost production under its Local Rice Farmers Can Feed West Africa Project.

FinGAP is a five-year project set up by the USAID to facilitate financial support to boost the maize, rice and soya value chains in the country as a form of intervention in a situation where commercial banks consider the agriculture sector to be a risk area for lending.

The Project Manager of SNV Netherlands Development Organisation, Zakaria Jalil, who disclosed this at a stakeholders’ forum for rice farmers, aggregators and farmer cooperatives in Tamale, urged the farmers to form cooperatives to secure more funds for their activities.

The forum enabled the rice farmers, processors and aggregators to discuss their financial needs, and how funding from FinGAP can benefit smallholder farmers when rice is patronised from the farmers.

It also provided a platform to the participants to network to support each other in the production and marketing of rice as each participant is unique in the service along the rice value chain.

Mr. Jalil said the forum was to provide the platform for players in the rice value chain to discuss funding constraints that militate against high rice yields, needed to feed the nation and also export to generate revenue for other developmental projects.

The project, he said, was also to seek opportunities to support processors and aggregators to purchase rice from farmers and encourage more production in the subsequent years.

He stressed that the aggregators and farmer cooperatives have standing MoUs with AVNASH rice mills to supply rice this season, but funding challenges do not allow speedy mobilisation of rice to AVNASH as farmers demand cash before rice is off-taken.

He said FinGAP is therefore a worthy partner in leveraging funding to support the rice value chain projects and urged beneficiaries to take the opportunities to put their houses in order to access the funds and thus contribute their quota to enhancing the economy.

Since the inception of the SNV rice project, about 1,700 farmers and processors have benefitted from business brokering services -- leading to beneficiaries gaining access to tractor services, fertiliser, seeds, working capital and extension services; resulting in the production of 1,400 acres of rice to boost rice projects in the Northern Region.

Mr. Dominic Ansah of FinGAP noted that his organisation is working with 21 financial institutions to provide financial support to farmers.

He said FinGAP in its first year facilitated US$4million credit to small-, medium- and large-scale enterprises.

FinGAP provides capacity building and prepare small-, medium- and large-scale rice, maize and soya farmers, processors, input dealers and other actors to access credit easily to support their activities he added.

The participants thanked SNV for the funding opportunity and indicated that although the SNV does not give direct financial support, its actions have facilitated opportunities that seek to connect capacities in the rice value chain.