Fumbisi rice farmers’ cry attracted several buyers – NAFCO boss

CEO of NAFCO dismisses reports on lack of market for rice produce[/caption] Wails by rice farmers in Fumbisi in the Upper East Region over failure to get buyers for their harvest have attracted several buyers, 3news.com has gathered. The Chief Executive Officer of the National Food Buffer Stock Company (NAFCO) says most of the hitherto bagged paddy rice scattered on farms have been bought. “When the news got out there, it attracted other buyers,” Alhaji Hanan Abdul-Wahab told Winston Amoah on 3FM’s Sunrise morning show on Thursday. He discounted earlier media reports received about the glut of rice produce, saying “there is some disparity and exaggeration”. According to the NAFCO boss, the farmers were rather disappointed after a private company, Avnash Industry Ghana, declined the offer to purchase new supplies from them despite assurances. A visit to the Fumbisi Valley, he said, revealed that the rice producers had been assured of ready market by Avnash Industry Ghana but they were disappointed when the company said it will not buy any more rice because last year’s were not consumed. Alhaji Abdul-Wahab stressed that: “Our mandate is to come in times like this”. He said when he visited the farmlands about three trucks had already parked to buy the produce from the farmers. “We met a few of them too in Bolgatanga trying to organise themselves with some truck.” He said measures have also been put in place to get more Ghanaian institutions to consume locally produced rice. Already, basic schools as well as senior high schools under the School Feeding Programme and the Free SHS programme respectively take delivery of these rice under the aegis of NAFCO. Alhaji Abdul-Wahab says a memorandum of understanding (MoU) will soon be signed with the Ghana Prisons Service, the Ghana Police Service and other state agencies to make it mandatory to consume locally produced rice. By Emmanuel Kwame Amoh|3news.com|Ghana Follow @kwame_amoh]]>