COTTON COMPANIES IN NR TO FOLD UP (PAGE 40)

SOME cotton companies in the Northern Region are likely to wind up due to the failure of some farmers to pay back loans granted them by the companies.
The companies alleged that some farmers divert the fertilisers and other farm inputs they (the companies) gave to them into different ventures such as food crop farming instead of using them for their intended purpose.
They cited for instance that one of the companies, Intercontinental Farm Limited, claimed to have made a lost of GH¢170,000 for the past two years because of the recalcitrance of the beneficiary farmers to honour their obligations.
The Managing Director of the company, Mr Ramez Hamadeh told the Daily Graphic in Tamale that “Some of us are likely to fold up because we are unable to repay the loans we ourselves took from the banks.”
“Following this unfortunate attitude by some of the farmers, the ginnery we wanted to put up is yet to be completed; and as at now, I do not know what to do, I am helpless”, he stated.
Mr Hamadeh said at the moment, all the 13 registered cotton companies, including the Ghana Cotton Company, had become victims and that if immediate measures were not taken to retrieve loans offered “some of us would eventually fold up.”
Normally at the beginning of the farming season, the companies offer fertilisers and other farm inputs to the beneficiaries, and after the harvest, the companies receive the product, do the necessary deductions and pay back the differences to the farmers.
But according to Mr Hamadeh, some of the farmers rather diverted the fertiliser and other inputs into food crop production while others sold it out and therefore were unable to pay back at the close of the season.
On why such farmers were not prosecuted, he explained that, such actions would have serious repercussions on cotton production since farmers in the communities would receive solidarity from their colleagues and therefore were likely not to enter into any partnership with the companies again.
The MD observed that such behaviours were discouraging people from investing in that sector.
He, therefore, advocated the establishment of a committee that would include stakeholders such as chiefs, security agencies and farmers groups to ensure that all loans received from the companies were paid back.
Mr Hamadeh, however, acknowledged that some of the reasons for the failure by the farmers to honour their loan obligations could be attributed to natural disasters and dishonesty by some front-line officers.
On the way forward, he suggested that farmers be made to grow their own cotton for the companies to purchase directly from them.
Mr Hamadeh also stated that the government should subsidise inputs such as fertiliser for the farmers to enable them to produce in large quantities.
He underscored the importance of cotton and observed that apart from feeding the textile industries, the seed could also be used to produce oil and fowl feed.
The MD, therefore, appealed to the government to show greater interest in the industry.