AVEYIME NEEDS OUR SUPPORT (SEPT 28)

THE Aveyime Rice project has bounced back with the production of quality local rice after years of court and political hamstrings that nearly threw away what many expected to be a viable project.
It is good news that the project has come on stream at a time when local imports have soared to unprecedented heights.
But there must be certain interventions by the government to protect the local production, if the venture is to remain viable.
As reported in our pages today, there is great potential for the rice produced locally. Besides that, the managers of the plantation say they require additional 20,000 acres of land to expand the rice farm. Currently, the company has acquired about 3,177 acres of land for cultivation.
The production of the 14,000 bags of rice was described as a “drop in the ocean”, considering the fact that we need to produce far beyond 100,000 bags of rice.
The Daily Graphic, therefore, calls for government support to make this project one that would become a lasting legacy.
There is a lesson to be learnt from the revival of the project and that is although the revamping of the project was done by the previous administration, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government, which started this project in the 1990s, has decided to support the ongoing rice production at Aveyime.
Our call for government direct intervention stems from the fact that the government, together with the Ghana Commercial Bank, has majority stake and, therefore, must show keen interest in the development of the project.
Also at stake is the relevance of public-private partnership in promoting our national development agenda. Therefore, the successful implementation and future viability of this project would be a shining example of a shared partnership between the government and the private sector which many private operators would wish to emulate in the future.
The Daily Graphic thinks that the government’s intervention is needed to create the right atmosphere for the project to succeed.
This is the first of such a large-scale agriculture project in the country to revive the local economy by creating wealth and jobs.
The impact of the project would not be measured in terms of the reduction in Ghana’s rice import bill, but how this project will impact on the livelihoods of the communities where the project is located.
Aveyime has the potential to employ many people, give them the needed skills and also offer them an opportunity to undertake outgrower schemes.
However, the Daily Graphic draws attention to a growing concern among the communities in the area whose lands have been acquired for the project.
Such land owners are yet to be paid compensation but in the meantime their heritage has been taken over by the rice company without any consideration to convert their lands into equity so that their source of income can be guaranteed.
No
matter the challenges, the prospects look good and everything should be done to make the project viable.
The Daily Graphic believes that the Rice Bill, when passed into law, can provide ready market for rice producers, including Aveyime, because it will become mandatory for government institutions to buy from local producers to avoid a glut in future, which can subsequently kill the project.