Farmers in the Builsa North District of the Upper East Region, have commended the Warehouse Receipt System (WRS) for providing storage facilities and promoting their grains and market.

Mr Maxwell Akadem, a farmer and Director of Akandem Farms Ltd. In Sandema, on behalf of the farmers said this year over one thousand maxi bags of maize stored in the warehouse by farmers from the various locations of the district were safe and ready to be sold at any time.

Mr Akadem who spoke with the Ghana News Agency at Sandema said the Ghana Agriculture Sector improvement programme supported the farmers with fertilizer on credit, which was paid for, after the harvest.

According to him the OCP Fertilizer Company that supported farmers and worked to improve soils, plant growth and increased crop yields also supported the farmers with fertilizer at 50 per cent subsidised prices which helped them increase production.

He said though the farmers’ expectation of accessing credit from the banks was not met, they were happy with the fertilizer services which made their farming activities easier, “ even though we were unable to access credit, once we pay for the fertilizer we are given, we know we can get more in future to do our farming”, he added.

The warehouse receipt is a document of title given to farmers after they store their produce in a certified warehouse.

The farmers were then able to use the warehouse receipt as collateral to secure financial assistance from the Ghana Warehouse Receipt System (WRS) partner banks.

The WRS was being implemented in nine regions of the country with financial support from IFC and the Swiss Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and the project is a technical assistance and advisory services project aimed at setting up a well-functioning regulated WRS that is expected to facilitate an increased access to credit to farmers and the supply chain, linkage to structured markets and reduction in post-harvest storage loses.

This intervention focuses on supporting a well-functioning WRS as a necessary pre-condition for a successful implementation of the Ghana Commodity Exchange (GCX).