Fievie Rice Project begins harvesting

The Fievie Rice Project in the South Tongu District of the Volta Region has begun harvesting its first high grade rice from a 60 hectare cultivated farm for the local market.

This was made known during a visit by Dr Ahmed Yakubu Alhassan, the Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture in charge of Crops, to gain first hand information on the progress of the project.

The Community Private Partnership, supported by the Ministry of Finance, is a collaboration between the South Tongu District and Global Agri-Development Company (GADCO), an agriculture investment company and the Fievie Community.

The rice plantation was started in February 2016 under the watch of a local hydrologist and a team of engineers and rice experts from Brazil. It uses water from the Volta Lake for irrigation.

Dr Alhassan said the partnership was very important because government needed private people to partner with to be used as a model to apply in other parts of the country to put fallow lands to productive use.

Mr Satyendra Kumu Saigh, the General Manager of GADCO, said the factory produced 600 bags of 50 kilogrammes of rice per hour of Aduanehene, Jasmin and COPA Jasmine perfumed rice.

Mr Joel Tsatsu, the Project Manager for COPA Connect, said 2,500 hectares of arable land was acquired but 1,000 hectares had so far been developed and it was their expectation that the remaining land would be developed in the future.

He said the project took off in January this year and that after the harvest the rice was bought from the farmers and 2.5 per cent of the money was given to the community for development.

Source: GNA