Ms Margaret Irene Saku, the President of the Afadzato South Women Rice Growers Association, has warned of a looming food crisis in the country if the government does not take steps to support farmers. The association thus, bemoaned the lack of support from the government for its members, describing it as a major setback to the activities of women rice farmers.

The association noted that the lack of equipment to harvest, thresh, winnow and mill the rice has resulted in the crop being left at the mercy of the weather, leading to post-harvest losses, which is demoralizing farmers. She asserted that in the long run, when farmers don’t produce, there will be a food crisis in the country.

“The Government says it is making frantic efforts to ensure local rice consumption to reserve some foreign exchange, but its priority is unclear because rice farmers are finding it difficult to secure basic equipment to facilitate their work. When the rice gets over-dried before harvesting, the milling process breaks it into pieces, and it’s very difficult to sell the broken rice, putting us at a loss.”
Ms Margaret Irene Saku

The President of the association noted that the farmers lacked combine harvesters to enhance their work, hence most of them engaged in manual harvesting and threshing, which was risky, time-consuming, and costly. “One of my workers chopped off his finger while harvesting because the knives we use (sickle) are very sharp and the least mistake could have dire consequences.”

Madam Saku showed that if the government could provide at least two harvesters on credit to the Association, the farmers would be able to mill fresh and good quality grains for the ready market, and make good sales and income to enjoy the fruits of their labor. “Though there were arable lands, women rice farmers struggled to obtain fertilizer, ready market and other basic equipment to produce on a large scale to feed the nation”.

Ghana Stopping Rice Importation

For Ghana to stop rice importation, the Government must support farmers across the board with the necessary equipment, including fertilizers and harvesters, to improve their work, she said.

Some members of the association expressed their sentiment, as a rice farmer said she lost about 15 acres of grain because of irregular rainfall patterns as a result of climate change. She averred that the government held conferences to formulate policies on rice production, but the real farmers were hardly invited to make inputs. “It is important that rice farmers are supported with simple processing machines at affordable prices to help reduce their stress and contribute better to the national food basket.”

Mr Benson Atiglah, the Executive Director of the Accelerated Rural Development Organisation, a non-governmental group focusing on rural development and forest conservation, on his part, said the lack of harvesters is affecting productivity and, thus, pleaded with the Government to go to the aid of rice farmers. “It takes about five days for three farmers to gather, thresh and winnow one hectare of land, compared to about one hour for a combine harvester to do the same job,” he explained.

Mr Muntaka Chasant, a researcher and environmental activist, noted the issues raised by the farmers, noting rice production is at risk because of drought and temperature variability- an example of the effects of climate change.

Extreme weather patterns such as drought and high temperatures, fuelled by climate change, are known to affect yield potentials in rainfed rice production areas. To make matters worse, the farmers now manually harvest large hectares of rice fields with sickles, taking days and weeks on end, instead of a few hours if they have mechanised harvesters.

“This has very serious implications for food security. We are all encouraging the consumption of locally produced rice. The Minister of Finance was recently in the news for expressing shock at Ukraine’s impressive grain export despite its conflict with Russia.

“How would Ghanaian farmers get their products to the markets if they spent weeks using a sickle to harvest the paddy fields and wooden planks to thresh, when it takes hours or days with modern machinery? Farmers do so much for Ghana yet receive a very little reward.”
Mr Muntaka Chasant