Rice farmers at the Bontanga rice farms in the Kumbungu District of the Northern Region have appealed to the government to create market opportunities for them to be able to sell their produce.
The farmers who spoke to the GhanaWeb, at their farms on Friday, May 27, 2022, said their produce is left to rot due to a lack of ready market, hence the need for government to intervene.
"As you can see the rice there, no one has come to buy, even those who come, want to buy it at a cheaper price," Alidu Fuseini, one of the farmers told GhanaWeb.
"When they come here, they want us to sell to them at a cheaper price, but when they go, they will sell and make a profit, meanwhile, we also suffer producing it," another farmer said.
"We need a serious buyer, after several months of suffering to produce the rice, selling it becomes very difficult, so the government should do something," one of them also said.
They mentioned the high cost of farm inputs as one of the many challenges facing them and appealed to the government to make sure that farm inputs such as fertilisers, weedicides, and herbicides among others, were available in the market at a subsidised price for them to buy.
"One of our major challenges has to do with the farm inputs. They are not available, and even if you get them, they are costly so you won't able to buy them," Bawa Issahaku told GhanaWeb.
They also appealed for farm equipment such as tractors for ploughing and planting and urged the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) to intervene.
"The other challenge we face as farmers has to do with farm equipment, during farming, we suffer a lot as a result of the absence of equipment," they said.
The Bontaanga rice farm is one of the largest rice farms in Ghana housing many Rice Farmers.
The farm was established during Dr. Hilla Imam's era and has since been operating.
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One of the farmers who spoke to GhanaWeb