PRAIRIE VOLTA: Championing local rice cultivattion (Saturday, February 9, 2012)
Standing behind the poorly-lit wooden counter of her roadside restaurant at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle legendary for meeting the pockets of people from all walks of life, Ama Acheampong heaps piles of rice in take-away packs of a customer.
When the owner of the night-only ‘chop bar’ first added rice cuisines to the menu of her chop bar, she didn't expect the tremendous accomplishment.
Her 16-year-old son had just graduated from the junior high school. She has bought two parcels of land on the outskirts of Accra.
Three years after taking the decision, Ama has no regrets, "I stopped selling banku, fufu and kokonte and concentrated on rice which is in very high demand."
“Although the price keeps increasing in the shops, I still manage to make enough to manage the home,” the 29-year-old single mother said as she wrapped the take-away pack in a black polythene bag.
Gradually, most Ghanaians are quickly substituting age-old banku, fufu, akple, tuo zaafi and other local food from our staples with rice, thereby increasing the country’s import bill on rice.
While the demand for the commodity, which used to be a Christmas delicacy in the immediate past, is on the increase, rice cultivation in the country is struggling to keep pace with the consumption.
The statistics
According to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Ghanaians consume about 700,000 metric tonnes of rice but as of 2010, local rice farmers could produce only 295,000 metric tonnes in 2010.
A recent presentation on the National Rice Development Strategy (NRDS) for Ghana indicated that the per capita rice consumption in Ghana is currently 38kg and that it would rise to 63kg in 2015 giving an aggregate demand of 1.68 million metric tonnes by 2015.
In the early 1970s, Ghana used to produce enough rice for local consumption and export. But due to uncontrolled trade liberalisation, the country is now a net importer of rice. It is estimated that Ghana spends US$800 million as import bill annually on rice for local consumption.
Across the country, there are large swathes of green and fertile lands and water almost everywhere but turning that into bags of rice has been a part of the challenge for a while now.
Aveyime rice farms – the history
Reducing the rice import bill was among the reasons the Rawlings administration decided to invest in a massive rice production project—the Aveyime rice farm under the watch of the American, Juliet R. Cotton.
But a project that held so much promise suffered a setback even before the first grain was bagged. The simple and short of all is that some officials in the Rawlings administration – Finance Minister Kwame Peprah; Minister of Agriculture Ibrahim Adam and Investment Policy Adviser Dr George Adja-Sipa Yankey – were jailed for causing financial loss to the state in April 2003 and for the way the project was managed.
Earlier, Mrs Cotton, also the Chief Executive Officer of the Quality Grain Company Limited, as the company was known, was also jailed in the United States in October 2002 for fraud and money laundering in connection with the rice scheme based in the eastern Volta Region near the banks of River Volta.
The Rice Project facility situated in the Aveyime Area in the Accra Plains, lies approximately 108 kilometres from the capital Accra and has, for half a decade, seen little or no activity until Prairie Volta took over in 2008.
Production
Ever since it entered the rice farming industry in Ghana, Prairie has succeeded in increasing interest in locally produced rice. So far, the company has been able to produce more than 15,000 metric tonnes of rice for the Ghanaian market. While a little over 10,000 tonnes have been milled and sold, the remaining has been turned into seedling for other farmers.
The good news is that the farm casts its shadows on the Volta River, therefore, access to water is no problem.
With the expertise at its disposal, the company’s Chief Operation Officer, Mr Clovis P.L. Mezzomo, said the company’s irrigation engineers were working on irrigation channels that could supply water to close to 5,000 acres in the medium term.
“We have an irrigation system that would improve production and maximise the effective use of water,” he added.
Currently, the farm is cultivating Jasmine 85 and Sierra (basmati variety) from the United States but it is also planning to experiment with some other varieties from Brazil to increase output.
Demand
While in the past demand for local rice has been stagnant because of perception of bad taste, Prairie’s branded ‘Volta Rice’ is not even meeting demand.
Hear Mr Richard Aidoo, the company’s Manager in charge of Finance and Administration, “Even before the rice is harvested, we have taken orders from customers who are awaiting delivery.”
PVL received excellent publicity in the months leading to its maiden production through a campaign of “Buy Ghana, Eat Ghana” which has steadily established a diversified network of buyers ranging from large companies to groups, individuals and government institutions. With over a hundred registered distributors, the company is able to supply only twenty-three more buyers than the produce.
The interest is so high that the Board Chairman of the company, Nana Ato Dadzie, said some people were engaging in illegalities through buying the company’s rice and re-bagging it.
The quality of the rice has received a lot of praise from no less a person than the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Ghana, Ms Harmandip Ruby Sandhu-Rojon, who described it as “a very good quality rice that meet international standards” during a recent tour of the farm.
Expansion
To further consolidate its foothold as Ghana’s biggest rice farm, the company has acquired 6,000 acres in addition to its current cultivation which covers almost 800 acres.
Located at Ke at Mafi Dove in the Volta Region, the company believes the new land will define the company’s future wealth.
“This place will reduce the cost of land preparation and is one of the richest for our project,” a smiling Mr John Vandyke-Mensah, the Managing Partner of the company, told the Daily Graphic as he pointed out the vast stretch of land filled with wild leguminous plants and trees.
Land preparation at the old site is quite an expensive venture, Mr Vandyke-Mensah said.
Currently, it cost $3,500 just to prepare an acre for planting. The problem is made worse with the undulating nature of the land and stubborn neem trees with roots that remain even after removal.
In the medium term, the company plans to cultivate 1,500 acres of its newly acquired land in addition to the almost 800 acres at its old site. Outgrowers are expected to feature prominently in the expansion drive.
As part of its outgrowers’ project, 3000 acres will be allocated to them to cultivate different varieties of rice and maize.
“We want to involve the local community in our work. They are very important to us,” Mr Aidoo said waving at a group of farmers sweating the day off in a nearby farm as the company’s car sped past them on the dusty road.
Currently, the company employs 135 people including casuals workers, a significant increase from just 45 in 2008.
Challenges
A major constraint in Ghana’s agricultural sector is how to finance commercial farming. Even though the Agricultural Development Bank was established to lead that mandate, commercial farms including Prairie are struggling to cope with the limited credit for the sector.
According to Mr Vandyke-Mensah, the local rice industry is not able to satisfy the demand for rice because “a lot of the government interventions go to small-scale farmers. We (commercial farmers) are left on our own to source for our funds and also pay market rates.”
He said for the rice industry to be attractive to investors, there was the need for the government to create the environment where access to finance is made easy and at cheaper rates in addition to direct interventions such as bearing the cost of land clearing.
He was, however, full of praise for President John Dramani Mahama, then Vice-President, for stepping in to ensure that some of the financial constraints were dealt with.
“He was very helpful when we were struggling to get some funding from the Agricultural Development Bank. That was a timely intervention that has kept us going.”
According to him, the company has invested close to 70 per cent of its loans on machinery because those it inherited from the Quality Grain were constantly breaking down.
The company spent $ 500,000 to replace the drier at the mill. The old drier, according to Mr Vandyke-Mensah, was for drying corn and not rice.
Beside that the company also has to spend additional funds to replace its aircraft which is used in spraying, fertilising and planting.
Another major headache, Mr Vandyke-Mensah, said was finding skilled Ghanaian workers who could operate the entire farm’s machinery.
“For now, the Ghanaians we have could only operate one equipment or the other. We need people who can work with the combine harvester, tractors and other equipment,” he added.
To that, Mr Clement Kofi Humado, the Minister of Food and Agriculture, said a way could be found around that by collaborating with the various universities.
The minister, who was on a recent tour of the farms, said he would make it one of his priority projects.
He gave an assurance that the ministry would assist the farm to stand on its feet as its potential to produce more rice to reduce the country’s import was high.
The future
In the long term, the company hopes to operate a farm that would be able to cultivate at least 6,000 acres and also work extensively with outgrowers.
To boost food production, the government recently announced that work would soon commence on the Accra Plains Irrigation Project, to cultivate more than 150,000 hectares to enhance food security and ensure self-sufficiency.
That, Mr Vandyke-Mensah noted, was a laudable idea but advised that when completed the project should not be left in the hands of small-scale farmers, since commercial farmers could better operate it and in turn help pay back the cost of the infrastructure.
“We have all the land, water and the human resource to produce enough to feed ourselves. We should not be importing food,” he said trudging through the field.
With the UT Bank and the Food and Agriculture Organisation having eyes in the future of the farms, the future indeed looks bright.
Mr Everret Anderson, the company’s Managing Director, sums up the future. “The future of the rice industry in Ghana is bright. There is no reason rice cannot grow well in Ghana; all the natural resources are available in addition. The price of rice is high enough to support the industry.”
When the owner of the night-only ‘chop bar’ first added rice cuisines to the menu of her chop bar, she didn't expect the tremendous accomplishment.
Her 16-year-old son had just graduated from the junior high school. She has bought two parcels of land on the outskirts of Accra.
Three years after taking the decision, Ama has no regrets, "I stopped selling banku, fufu and kokonte and concentrated on rice which is in very high demand."
“Although the price keeps increasing in the shops, I still manage to make enough to manage the home,” the 29-year-old single mother said as she wrapped the take-away pack in a black polythene bag.
Gradually, most Ghanaians are quickly substituting age-old banku, fufu, akple, tuo zaafi and other local food from our staples with rice, thereby increasing the country’s import bill on rice.
While the demand for the commodity, which used to be a Christmas delicacy in the immediate past, is on the increase, rice cultivation in the country is struggling to keep pace with the consumption.
The statistics
According to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Ghanaians consume about 700,000 metric tonnes of rice but as of 2010, local rice farmers could produce only 295,000 metric tonnes in 2010.
A recent presentation on the National Rice Development Strategy (NRDS) for Ghana indicated that the per capita rice consumption in Ghana is currently 38kg and that it would rise to 63kg in 2015 giving an aggregate demand of 1.68 million metric tonnes by 2015.
In the early 1970s, Ghana used to produce enough rice for local consumption and export. But due to uncontrolled trade liberalisation, the country is now a net importer of rice. It is estimated that Ghana spends US$800 million as import bill annually on rice for local consumption.
Across the country, there are large swathes of green and fertile lands and water almost everywhere but turning that into bags of rice has been a part of the challenge for a while now.
Aveyime rice farms – the history
Reducing the rice import bill was among the reasons the Rawlings administration decided to invest in a massive rice production project—the Aveyime rice farm under the watch of the American, Juliet R. Cotton.
But a project that held so much promise suffered a setback even before the first grain was bagged. The simple and short of all is that some officials in the Rawlings administration – Finance Minister Kwame Peprah; Minister of Agriculture Ibrahim Adam and Investment Policy Adviser Dr George Adja-Sipa Yankey – were jailed for causing financial loss to the state in April 2003 and for the way the project was managed.
Earlier, Mrs Cotton, also the Chief Executive Officer of the Quality Grain Company Limited, as the company was known, was also jailed in the United States in October 2002 for fraud and money laundering in connection with the rice scheme based in the eastern Volta Region near the banks of River Volta.
The Rice Project facility situated in the Aveyime Area in the Accra Plains, lies approximately 108 kilometres from the capital Accra and has, for half a decade, seen little or no activity until Prairie Volta took over in 2008.
Production
Ever since it entered the rice farming industry in Ghana, Prairie has succeeded in increasing interest in locally produced rice. So far, the company has been able to produce more than 15,000 metric tonnes of rice for the Ghanaian market. While a little over 10,000 tonnes have been milled and sold, the remaining has been turned into seedling for other farmers.
The good news is that the farm casts its shadows on the Volta River, therefore, access to water is no problem.
With the expertise at its disposal, the company’s Chief Operation Officer, Mr Clovis P.L. Mezzomo, said the company’s irrigation engineers were working on irrigation channels that could supply water to close to 5,000 acres in the medium term.
“We have an irrigation system that would improve production and maximise the effective use of water,” he added.
Currently, the farm is cultivating Jasmine 85 and Sierra (basmati variety) from the United States but it is also planning to experiment with some other varieties from Brazil to increase output.
Demand
While in the past demand for local rice has been stagnant because of perception of bad taste, Prairie’s branded ‘Volta Rice’ is not even meeting demand.
Hear Mr Richard Aidoo, the company’s Manager in charge of Finance and Administration, “Even before the rice is harvested, we have taken orders from customers who are awaiting delivery.”
PVL received excellent publicity in the months leading to its maiden production through a campaign of “Buy Ghana, Eat Ghana” which has steadily established a diversified network of buyers ranging from large companies to groups, individuals and government institutions. With over a hundred registered distributors, the company is able to supply only twenty-three more buyers than the produce.
The interest is so high that the Board Chairman of the company, Nana Ato Dadzie, said some people were engaging in illegalities through buying the company’s rice and re-bagging it.
The quality of the rice has received a lot of praise from no less a person than the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Ghana, Ms Harmandip Ruby Sandhu-Rojon, who described it as “a very good quality rice that meet international standards” during a recent tour of the farm.
Expansion
To further consolidate its foothold as Ghana’s biggest rice farm, the company has acquired 6,000 acres in addition to its current cultivation which covers almost 800 acres.
Located at Ke at Mafi Dove in the Volta Region, the company believes the new land will define the company’s future wealth.
“This place will reduce the cost of land preparation and is one of the richest for our project,” a smiling Mr John Vandyke-Mensah, the Managing Partner of the company, told the Daily Graphic as he pointed out the vast stretch of land filled with wild leguminous plants and trees.
Land preparation at the old site is quite an expensive venture, Mr Vandyke-Mensah said.
Currently, it cost $3,500 just to prepare an acre for planting. The problem is made worse with the undulating nature of the land and stubborn neem trees with roots that remain even after removal.
In the medium term, the company plans to cultivate 1,500 acres of its newly acquired land in addition to the almost 800 acres at its old site. Outgrowers are expected to feature prominently in the expansion drive.
As part of its outgrowers’ project, 3000 acres will be allocated to them to cultivate different varieties of rice and maize.
“We want to involve the local community in our work. They are very important to us,” Mr Aidoo said waving at a group of farmers sweating the day off in a nearby farm as the company’s car sped past them on the dusty road.
Currently, the company employs 135 people including casuals workers, a significant increase from just 45 in 2008.
Challenges
A major constraint in Ghana’s agricultural sector is how to finance commercial farming. Even though the Agricultural Development Bank was established to lead that mandate, commercial farms including Prairie are struggling to cope with the limited credit for the sector.
According to Mr Vandyke-Mensah, the local rice industry is not able to satisfy the demand for rice because “a lot of the government interventions go to small-scale farmers. We (commercial farmers) are left on our own to source for our funds and also pay market rates.”
He said for the rice industry to be attractive to investors, there was the need for the government to create the environment where access to finance is made easy and at cheaper rates in addition to direct interventions such as bearing the cost of land clearing.
He was, however, full of praise for President John Dramani Mahama, then Vice-President, for stepping in to ensure that some of the financial constraints were dealt with.
“He was very helpful when we were struggling to get some funding from the Agricultural Development Bank. That was a timely intervention that has kept us going.”
According to him, the company has invested close to 70 per cent of its loans on machinery because those it inherited from the Quality Grain were constantly breaking down.
The company spent $ 500,000 to replace the drier at the mill. The old drier, according to Mr Vandyke-Mensah, was for drying corn and not rice.
Beside that the company also has to spend additional funds to replace its aircraft which is used in spraying, fertilising and planting.
Another major headache, Mr Vandyke-Mensah, said was finding skilled Ghanaian workers who could operate the entire farm’s machinery.
“For now, the Ghanaians we have could only operate one equipment or the other. We need people who can work with the combine harvester, tractors and other equipment,” he added.
To that, Mr Clement Kofi Humado, the Minister of Food and Agriculture, said a way could be found around that by collaborating with the various universities.
The minister, who was on a recent tour of the farms, said he would make it one of his priority projects.
He gave an assurance that the ministry would assist the farm to stand on its feet as its potential to produce more rice to reduce the country’s import was high.
The future
In the long term, the company hopes to operate a farm that would be able to cultivate at least 6,000 acres and also work extensively with outgrowers.
To boost food production, the government recently announced that work would soon commence on the Accra Plains Irrigation Project, to cultivate more than 150,000 hectares to enhance food security and ensure self-sufficiency.
That, Mr Vandyke-Mensah noted, was a laudable idea but advised that when completed the project should not be left in the hands of small-scale farmers, since commercial farmers could better operate it and in turn help pay back the cost of the infrastructure.
“We have all the land, water and the human resource to produce enough to feed ourselves. We should not be importing food,” he said trudging through the field.
With the UT Bank and the Food and Agriculture Organisation having eyes in the future of the farms, the future indeed looks bright.
Mr Everret Anderson, the company’s Managing Director, sums up the future. “The future of the rice industry in Ghana is bright. There is no reason rice cannot grow well in Ghana; all the natural resources are available in addition. The price of rice is high enough to support the industry.”
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