The Ghana Rice Production Improvement Project (GRIP), accomplished below the framework of technical cooperation by way of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in partnership with the Directorate of Crop Services (DCS) and the Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA) of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), hosted a an important discipline demonstration of labour-saving applied sciences.

The tournament aimed to strategically introduce rice stakeholders to complicated mechanisation to handle the problem of top prices and labour shortages these days undermining the competitiveness of in the community produced Ghanaian rice.

The Challenge of Competitiveness
Ghana these days imports roughly 950,000 heaps of rice yearly, with Asian sorts dominating the growth milestone because of value efficiencies no longer but matched by way of native manufacturers.

Local rice farmers face vital hurdles, together with emerging equipment provider charges for ploughing and harvesting, coupled with labour shortages as formative years migrate to different sectors of the economic system.

Heavy reliance on guide labour for key actions comparable to ploughing, seeding, fertilizing, harvesting and drying has led to top manufacturing prices, in the long run resulting in native rice being priced in a similar fashion to, and even upper than, imported rice, irritating each manufacturers and customers.

Strategic Introduction of Labour-Saving Technology

To triumph over those constraints, GRIP championed the mixing of contemporary, labour-saving mechanisation as a strategic measure to scale back manufacturing time and enter prices.

The discipline demonstration, co-organised by way of GRIP, Agricultural Engineering Services Directorate (AESD) of MoFA and the GIZ-supported Market-Oriented Value Chains for Jobs and Growth within the ECOWAS Region (MOVE) presented agricultural establishments, provider suppliers and rice manufacturers a firsthand alternative to guage the practicality and financial viability of cutting edge apparatus.

The apparatus presented to the members is composed of dry-field direct seeders, no-till dry-field direct seeders,
wet-field direct seeders, drone seeders, and force harrows.

The apparatus will lend a hand simplify the method of land investment and scale back in depth land preparation, make stronger puddling operations and soil levelling compared to typical strategies, shorten guide labour operations and in the end give a boost to post-harvest potency to make stronger rice high quality.

In addition, GRIP additionally presented a flat-bed paddy dryer, designed by way of International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and fabricated by way of an area producer of Ghana, as a labour- and time-saving choice to the present typical use of outside flat flooring for drying paddy after harvest.

Fostering Adoption and New Business Models

The tournament went past mere showcasing. Machinery producers and sellers offered their apparatus and exhibited their labour-saving applied sciences, fostering direct engagement with agricultural equipment provider suppliers and farmers. This collaboration was once designed to give a boost to technical reliability, advertise dissemination, and facilitate the investment of latest service-provider enterprise fashions that make those applied sciences obtainable throughout rice-growing spaces.

The demonstration happened on the participating farmers’ fields at Kpong Irrigation Scheme (KIS) and was once for all stakeholders dedicated to securing Ghana’s rice self-sufficiency.

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DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by way of Readers and Contributors in this platform don’t essentially constitute the perspectives or coverage of Multimedia Group Limited.