Tamale, Jan. 13, GNA - The Ghana Cotton Company Limited (GCCL) recently received GH¢2.6m from the former Kufuor Administration to enable the company to help cotton farmers to increase their output and to settle debts of service providers.

The Administration released the money through the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) as a loan facility, which would also help the company to purchase cotton from the farmers.

Mr. Mumuni Alhassan, General Manager of North Central Division of the GCCL, told the GNA in an interview in Tamale, on Tuesday, that company would now be in a better position to support the farmers to increase production during the 2009/2010 crop season.

Additionally, he said the government provided 20 new tractors to farmers to augment the existing ones to increase their productivity. He indicated that the GCCL had also subsidised the prices of farm inputs to enable the farmers to increase their productivity. He said the development of the cotton industry in Ghana had lacked policy direction and support adding that the 2008/2009 crop season witnessed a lot of farmer apprehension.

Mr. Alhassan said at the beginning of the season both cotton companies and farmers wondered how they could survive the period in the face of rising cost of production.