COTTON COMPANIES APPEAL FOR MORE SUPPORT (BACK PAGE)

PRIVATE cotton companies in the Northern Region have implored the government to pay more attention to the sector as the industry has the potential to generate not only foreign exchange but also provide job opportunities for the large number of unemployed youth in the area.
“We are ready and committed to producing cotton once again to feed the local textile industries and for export, if the needed support is offered us by the government to revamp the cotton sector,” the President of the Cotton Producers Association, Alhaji Ibrahim Abdulai Mobila, stated at a press conference in Tamale.
“Cotton is the only cash crop that does well with little or no rain. It is a cash crop for the rural poor,” he added.
Alhaji Mobila, however, mentioned the unavailability of farm inputs and adequate financial support to the association as some of the difficulties that members were currently going through in their operations.
According to him, with the involvement of private companies in the cultivation of cotton, the country’s cotton production rose from 6000 to 21,000 metric tons within the period 1998-2000.
“The tremendous increase of cotton lint production made textile mills meet their requirement, while lint and cotton seeds were exported to Europe and Asia,” Alhaji Mobila emphasised.
Apart from the raw cotton for the manufacture of textiles, cotton seed is also processed into oil and other edibles while the by-product is used for animal feed.
“The industry could have grown bigger but this was, however, affected by the international price of the commodity dropping, thus resulting in most companies slowing down production,” Alhaji Mobila indicated.
He said when the business of cotton producers came to a standstill, it had a rippling effect on the entire textile industry with some even closing down their operations and rendering thousands of people unemployed.
This situation, according to him, had resulted in the inability of some companies to pay back loans they contracted from the banks.
At the moment, five of the companies are being prosecuted by a bank in Tamale.
Alhaji Mobila, however, reminded the government of its pledge to revamp cotton companies in northern Ghana to help generate employment, reduce poverty and improve upon the living conditions of the farmers.
“Neighbouring Burkina Faso is an example of how cotton has been a major export crop and foreign exchange earner for the country and as northern Ghana shares similar geographical features, we can do better in cotton production with our joint commitments,” he assured.