Farmers to abandon Dawhenya Rice Project ?

The late General Ignatius Kutu Acheampong who led the January 13, 1972 coup to overthrow Dr. Kofi Abrefa Busia’s government left a statement in the country that will be remembered by generations and that was the OPERATION FEED YOURSELF campaign that swept across the nation like bush fire.

Colonel Frank George Bernasko was then Commissioner for Agriculture and so are those nostalgic days when workers, students and people from all walks of life trooped to take part in digging trenches at Dawhenya for an irrigation canal. Exactly 30 years later, today, the beautiful project has become a source of disincentive to rice farmers who are currently submerged in huge electricity bills resulting in the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) disconnecting the project from the national grid, owing ?445 million as at the end of October, 2003.

Information gathered has it that other irrigation projects - Weija and Asutsuare (Kpong Irrigation Project, KIP) - have also been disconnected by the ECG due to the same burdening electricity bills. Weija, the findings state owes about ?700 million, and as for Asutsuare, the power company is preparing to remove that transformer completely.

Statistics show that as the electricity bill rises, the Dawhenya project for instance is recording a decline in rice production.

Interestingly, these are the same farmers government says it is assisting for local rice production because the state spends $100 million annually for importation of the commodity.

Government acquired 189 hectares of land for the Dawhenya Irrigation Project and has 235 farmers cultivating at least 150 hectares at a time, creating jobs for hundreds of persons.

Information available to The Chronicle has it that the woes of the rice farmers began when electricity bills went high from 2001, and each farmer had to pay ?850,000 for services by way of electricity bills and on the whole farmers cultivated 160 hectares of the land.

The following year, 2002, each farmer paid ?1.7 million cedis and registered 150 hectares for area cultivated, and in 2003, ?4.2 million was charged the struggling farmers who managed to make use of only 90n hectares of the land and from signals picked, 2004 and subsequent years will see the once viable project abandoned completely.

Further probing has disclosed that the farmers are even grateful to the ECG for allowing them some grace period before disconnecting electricity supply to the pump house.

The distressed farmers recently run to their major buyer CCTC for assistance to enable them to defray some of the huge electricity bills and the company offered them ?100 million and on their own they contributed ?173 million which they reportedly paid to the ECG to enable them to remain on line.

They therefore appealed to the power company to allow up to September of last year to clear the arrears but when that could not materialize, the ECG gave another grace period to December before finally disconnecting the service lines.

The finding is that rice farming is gradually becoming unattractive as at the end of each season, farmers use their yields to service only electricity bills, not talking about other expenses involved in cultivation.

A section of the farmers this reporter spoke to were of the belief that if government would not like the rice projects to die, then the current high electricity bills they are paying must be subsidized and also be exempted from the Value Added Tax (VAT) that is charged on the electricity consumed.

A suggestion has also been made for careful studies to be carried out for the introduction of either wind propelled pumps or solar energy to run the projects.

Reports gathered from the ECG indicate that, the decision to disconnect the Dawhenya Project from the mains is to save the struggling farmers from further debts, as they are already reeling under serious financial crisis.

The Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA), The Chronicle’s investigations revealed, has no hope of assisting these projects, especially the Dawhenya site if help does not arrive from elsewhere.

The broken-down equipment at the compound is a clear testimony to the fact that the rice farmers need urgent attention more so as we are entering another cultivating season.

Interestingly, these projects are suffering at a time when the father of the nation has launched several special initiatives to improve performances in these sectors.

An official source at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture who declined to comment on the hopeless situation at Dawhenya is of the view that if the nation is to pride itself as an agriculture state, then at least some of these issues must be tackled with the needed attention.