RICE PROCESSING GROUP CRIES FOR HELP (MIRROR, Saturday, June 13,2009 , PAGE 27)

From Benjamin Xornam Glover,
Zuarungu

The Coordinator of the Single Mothers Association,(SMA) a Bolgatanga-based local women's organisation, Ms Stella Abagre has underlined the importance of giving protection to locally produced commodities against the invasion of imported ones, often produced at subsidised cost.
“We are convinced that the rice industry can deliver meaningful local employment and decent income for our communities that produce them if given the needed support’ said Ms Abagre whose group was into rice processing.
Apart from rice processing, members of the association who are made up of divorcees and single mothers are into several activities including, basket weaving, sheabutter processing, social awareness training, amongst others.
Due to the lack of market, tonnes of rice neatly packaged are lying in the stores. She, therefore, stressed that if government could incorporate the use of local rice in interventions such as the School Feeding Programme, it would also help generate employment for the community members since they would be engaged in farming, processing and packaging of the produce as well as offer high quality and nutritious meals to the children.
Ms Abagre made these comments when the Upper East Regional Minister, Mr Mark Woyongo and his Deputy Mrs Lucy Awuni visited the Rice Milling Project of the group at Zuarungu, near Bolgatanga.
In her welcoming address, Ms Abagre said the SMA was set up in 1998 to negate cultural and traditional practices that have rendered unmarried women frustrated and dejected in the society.
She said activities of the SMA include income generation, advocacy and family life education. She added that with support from Oxfam, a British non-governmental organisation, a rice processing machine was acquired for the SMA to help improve the quality of locally produced rice in the region.
Ms Abagre also added that apart from difficulties in accessing markets for the products, the SMA was confronted with problems in accessing credit from financial institutions to run their businesses, and appealed to government for assistance.
The Upper East Regional Minister, Mr Mark Woyongo said it was government's desire to reduce poverty through the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority, adding that the programme was meant to help vulnerable groups such as the SMA.
He told the women who are also into shea butter processing that a Sheanut Development Baord would be established to develop, process and market the produce for export.
The regional minister announced that the government was reorganising the School Feeding Programme to fine tune it and ensure that suppliers source their purchases from the local market.
“The price of polish rice may be cheap but the nutritional value is very high. We will do all in our power to ensure higher patronage of the local rice”, Mr Woyongo said.
Mr Woyongo acknowledged the difficulties of the group in accessing paddy rice for milling and said this year; “government is going to embark on a serious rice cultivation in the Fumbisi Valley to make paddy rice available and affordable for processing”.
He also said the Irrigation Company of the Upper Region would also be supported to produce enough paddy rice for milling.
This he explained would go a long way in beating down the cost of production and subsequently make their produce competitive on the local market.
He also recommended to the leadership of SMA the services of the Export Development and Investment Fund (EDIF), and urged them to explore that possibility in seeking assistance to expand their business.