Stallion Group partners Kpong Irrigation Farms on rice production

THE Stallion Group of Companies, importers of agricultural produce and vehicles, is to partner the Kpong Irrigation Project to increase rice production in the country.
As a first step, the company is to provide heavy machinery and world class rice processing equipment for use in the country’s southern food basket.
The Finance Director of the Group, Mr Sameer H. Gupta, who made this known at a sensitisation workshop on rice production at Asutsuare in the Eastern Region, stated that the group also intended to promote a ‘Green Field Project’, by installing a 500,000 metric tonne rice milling machine and cultivating 150,000 hectares.
He said the group, which has been in the country for eight years, had a vision to preserve and enrich rice production in Ghana by ensuring the genetic integrity of seeds, encouraging farmers to adopt scientific agricultural practices and leveraging world-class rice processing technologies.
“We will extend the procurement and distribution network to different rice growing regions in Ghana and work towards the uplift and education of the farmers and their families,” he added.
An expert in rice production, Dr P. Bala, who is also with the Stallion Group of Companies, noted that some of the features of the rice terrain in Ghana were remarkable and added that there was good amount of annual rainfall with efficient distribution in all rice growing areas in the country.
He added that there was plenty of water resources, adding that the farmers also had a good attitude towards rice cultivation.
However, he said, the KIP project had an irrigation system that needed to be improved to enhance production.
Other problems he identified were; low crop yield per unit area, low utilisation of irrigable land, low adoption rate of technologies, loss of revenue due to non-maintenance of irrigation infrastructure, lack of input fertilisers and low income for farmers.
He urged the government to maintain a proper database on farmers, provide incentives, rewards and public recognition for rice farmers and maintain a high motivation level to encourage the farmers to work harder.
He also called for the introduction of insurance policies to provide comprehensive coverage for crops including loss of profit to the farmers and prodded the government to make it obligatory for students studying agriculture to work on contract farming programmes as part of their curriculum, and encourage them to set their own targets.
Dr Bala assured farmers that the Stallion Group of Companies would help them to meet their needs with regard to farm inputs by providing them with fertilisers, herbicides, plant protection chemicals and sprayers and guide farmers to solve the specific problems related to crop management in their farms.
He also urged them to endeavour to approach the experts for advice on any difficulty encountered in the process
The Project Manager of KIP, Mr E. T. Sekou, said the management had realised from relationships with other stakeholders that for a healthy and sustainable partnership, there must be mutual respect, a good understanding and appreciation of the needs and goals of partners for a win-win outcome.
He said unfortunately, the relationship between KIP and some of its partners had not been sustainable because of the parochial interests of agricultural input suppliers and processing millers, and lack of capacity of partners to perform their roles effectively.
He said the overall performance of the project had been below expectation because of a number of interrelated constraints, which included fragmented farm plots, lack of specific materials for rice production, and inappropriate machinery.
Mr Sekou noted that there was also the need to increase the staff strength because of inadequate staffing, provide support for research and extension efforts and strengthen staff capacity through partnerships.
Presently, he said, there were about 2,500 household heads involved in rice production and the average farm size per head was one hectare.
He said other commercial farmers had also indicated their intention to grow maize, spices, and fish on the project sites, and noted that two of such commercial farmers were Tropo Farms Limited, currently specialising in tilapia production; and Golden Exotic Limited, which was growing banana for export.