Ghana’s cotton industry gets support

The Government of Ghana has released GH¢2.6m loan contract from the Agricultural Development Bank to the Ghana Cotton Company Limited (GCCL) to enhance its purchasing power.

The loan is to support the GCCL to purchase cotton from local farmers in the three Northern Regions and also settle debts of service providers. It is also to position the company to support farmers for the 2009/2010 crop season.

This was contained in a release issued to the press in Tamale and signed by the North-Central Division General Manager of GCCL, Mr. Mumuni Alhassan.

Meanwhile, the Cotton Industry, since its inception in the 60s has not received any meaningful attention from successive governments, which has thus consistently not motivated farmers in the business over the years.

There have been several instances where cotton farmers across the three Northern Regions have threatened to leave the undustry as a result of lack of support and policy directions.

The farmers were particular about lack of ready market which was decreasing their investments. Especially in the 2007/2008 and 2008/2009 crop seasons, the farmers were apprehensive and wondered about their ability to survive the seasons in the face of the rising costs of farm inputs and land preparation, coupled with the low world market price.

In saving the farmers from these difficult moments, the Ghana Cotton Company, which is the leading cotton buying company in the country, in collaboration with the government in 2008/2009, released twenty (20) brand new tractors to supplement the existing number of tractors of the company to support the farmers.

In addition, the GCCL also subsidized the prices of inputs like NPK/Compound, seed cotton and land preparation between 12 and 26 percent to relief the farmers in that same year. With the injection of the GH¢2.6 million by the government, the North-Central Division General Manager of GCCL, Mr. Mumuni Alhassan believes the company is now properly positioned to support the farmers for the 2009/2010 crop season. He also promised the GCCL resolve to help farmers in three Northern Regions to sustain the Cotton Industry.

Source: The Chronicle