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AGRICULTURE

Availability of inputs boosts success of sorghum farmers in UER

Mr. Abdul Raman Mohammed, Manager of the business wing, Akuafo Nketewa Company Limited, Tempane District of the Upper East Region, has attributed the high yield of sorghum to prompt intervention by aggregators to ensure availability of inputs for farmers to facilitate production.

Date Created : 3/22/2024 : Story Author : Fatima Anafu-Astanga/Ghanadistricts.com

He reiterated that Sorghum was a time bound crop and failure to follow each of the activities at the right time during cultivation could lead to total failure, which the company did not want to happen.

Akuafo Nketewa was able to arrange the right inputs at the right time for farmers, which contributed to the company exceeding its quota of supply by 20,000 metric tonnes of the crop to Guinness Ghana PLC between January to September 2023 and hoped to do more if given another quota, he said.

Mr. Mohammed, also a member of the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG), who spoke in Bolgatanga, said the current arrangement with Guinness Ghana was the only way farmers had reliable means of assurance of income from their produce.

Though in the open market, traders patronised the produce in low quantities and farmers were not able to sell in large quantities to get money on time to offset their loans, he said.

The company was dealing with more than 11,000 farmers in the Upper East Region, who were into Sorghum production in Tempane, Pusiga, Bongo, Bawku West and Builsa districts, the Kassena Nankana and Bawku Municipality.

Also, farmers at Gushegu, Saboga and Cheriponi in the NorthEast Region, where there are aggregators mobilizing the sorghum produce, were part.

Mr. Mohammed, however, noted that huge quantities of sorghum were still on the farms and warehouses.

The aggregators who were buying from the farmers were doing well, being able to manage the huge quantities involved and ready market available, he said.

He noted that there were challenges in dealing with farmers as loan recoveries were not so encouraging, explained that the company did not provide credit but linked the aggregators to sources of farm inputs to give to their farmers.