The Northern Rural Growth Programme (NRGP) is advancing towards making rice a major export commodity in Northern Ghana.
Management of the NRGP is thereby encouraging small holder farmers to adopt best farming techniques as means of increasing the quality and production of rice.
The programmes’ National Coordinator, Roy Ayariga said government was committed to rebrand Northern Ghana as the country’s rice city.
[contextly_sidebar id=”lbfYUzP2ol8HvyjixFVFWwsiqrXMsF59″]This, according to him will attract multinationals to invest in rice production in the three regions of the north.
Roy Ayariga was addressing some selected small holder farmers at a demonstration farm in Nabogu of the Savelugu/Nantong district in the Northern Region.
He kicked against the orthodox practice of using multiplicity of rice seeds on the same plantation.
Roy Ayariga inspired small holder farmers to adjust to the nursing and transplanting method of rice cultivation.
He said such best practice will attract banks and other financial institutions to give them loans to hire or purchase rice transplanting machines to maximize their yield.
Some of the participants said the nursing and transplanting method was capital intensive.
They cited the cost of labour and acquisition of the transplanting machines as some of the constraints associated with the system.
However, Musah Adam Bawa, a Nabogu based rice farmer who has been in the trade for a decade subscribed to the modern farming techniques.
He recounted the savings he misapplied on the wild method of rice cultivation.
Musah Adam Bawa encouraged his colleagues to espouse the modern method by using uniformed variety of certified rice seeds.
Northern Regional Director of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), William Boakye Acheampong discounted claims that the modernized rice cultivation system was capital intensive.
He tasked the farmers to desist from the extensive cultivation of rice which he observed produced poor yields.
William Boakye Acheampong added that the MOFA will intensify its education to encourage more farmers to adopt the modern method.
He reassured the farmers that MOFA will continue to initiate policies which will address their concerns.
A former Northern Regional Director of the MOFA, Sylvester Adongo allayed fears that rural agriculture was gradually collapsing.
He nonetheless decried the removal of subsidies on farm inputs including fertilizer.
Sylvester Adongo added his voice to calls for immediate restoration of subsidies on farm inputs.
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By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah/citifmonline.com/Ghana