The Genereal Secretary of the General Agriculture Workers Union, Mr Ofei Nkansa has lauded the efforts of management of Aveyime Rice fields to start commercial production and sales of Aveyime rice in all markets nationwide in August.

He said a lot of the tax payers money has been used to fund the establishment of the rice fields over the years and hence it is time Ghanaians are given the opportunity to realise and share in the gains of this capital intensive project.

He also noted that it is very important and encouraging that Aveyime Rice fields also process and assist private rice producers to come out with fine quality rice.

Emphasising that Ghanaians do not patronise local rice because of the poor way of production by local private rice farmers in Ghana and relative sale of poor quality Ghanaian rice in the market.

Quality is the main concern,however, the Aveyime rice fields has stated that the rice produced is of the same quality as the Jasmine rice being imported.

It is his expectation that the company will produce on large scale to make it more competitive on the Ghanaian market and override the imported rice.

“It is not without challenges when a mono cultural system of rice production on a large scale exists, challenges of availability of land and environment cannot be ruled out”.

Media reports have stated that in about a month from now, high quality perfumed rice from the Aveyime rice fields would start hitting the markets nation.

The rice which would be packaged mostly in 5 kilos with special orders in 20 and 30 kilos are expected to force down prices of imported rice since management of Prairie Volta Ltd (PVL), current operators of the farm believe they have all it takes to adopt competitive pricing in their marketing.

John Paul Baree, Farm Manager of the Aveyime fields said currently the farm has harvested 360 metric tones of rice from eight acres, but is expected to hit 2000 metric tones by the end of the year.

This, Mr. Baree believes though modest, would help the food security situation in the country for this year.

The farm currently has a 30% government of Ghana ownership while Mr. Anddison and his Prairie Rice friends hold 70% stakes. It has a 3000 acre land close to the River Volta where water is drawn from to irrigate the farm lands.

“Rice farming in Ghana is profitable, and we would not have been here if we would not be able to compete favourably with the world market”, he noted.

Ghanadistricts/Anna Marian Ardayfio