Okudzeto Ablakwa Seeks Government Support For Shaky State Industries, As He Tours Constituency

From Felix Engsalige Nyaaba-Aveyime/VR

Mr. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, the Member of Parliament(MP) for North Tongu Constituency in the Volta Region has pledged to seek government support to fund state industries in the region that are at  the verge of collapsing  in order to enable them create  employment opportunities for the teeming unemployed youth in the country.

According to him,  Ghana is endowed with resources and that there was the need to support  the already  few state industrial assets to function effectively to save the country  youth from the trouble of travelling to other countries to search for  no existing white-collar jobs.

Mr. Ablakwa made this known to the media during a fact finding tour to some state factories and industries in his constituency on Monday this week.

He said  the duty of an MP  was not only to sit in parliament and legislates laws, but to also take part in finding solutions to the problems the people faces, especially with regards to industries and factories that are been run by the state.

“I think from time to time, you need to visit some of these state facilities and see things for yourself as an MP, our duties are not just to go and sit in parliament and make laws, but to also advance the needs of the people who put you there. You need to know the companies in your constituency, see what is happening and the problems they faced so you can make suggestion or help find solution to them,’ he stated.

The tour  took him to  some state  facilities including  the Volta Star Textiles Company at Juapong;  Juapong Vertinary Milk Factory, North Tongu Irrigation project, Aveyime Rice farm and Aveyime Cattle Range all in the North Tongu Constituency.

At the Volta Star Textiles Company, Mr. Ablakwa was taking round the facility by the Acting Technical Director Mr. Evans Agyagbo ,  where he promised to support the company to seek funding of GHC6 million  to  be able to meet its needed capital to become fully operational.

The Juapong Vertinary Milk Factory,  he pledged to assist in seeking funds from private investors to help put the factory  which was established  in five years ago to support cattle farmers in the area to become operational so that  cattle farmers in the area could earn a decent living.

He told the Supervisor of the Milk Factory, Mr. Ropbertson Damanka, that he would use his MP office to lobby the government through the Ministry of  Food and Agriculture  as well as private Investors to invest in the Milk industry  so it could open job opportunity for the youth and the cattle farmers.

Mr. Ablakwa urged the cattle farmers in the area to form an association and mobilize funds as seed capital to start the project which is solely for their benefit while government and other investors come in to support them.

At the North Tongu Irrigation project site which is under the funding of the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) and the government of Ghana (GOG), the site Engineer and Consultant, Mr. Clifford Henkel said the project was moving at the speedY stage but  only faced with some few challenges due to the inexperience services by the Ghanaian contractors on the site .

He told the MP that though the project is being funded by MiDA, the inexperience services delivers by the irrigation by the Ghanaian contractors was giving addition cost to the government and might undoubvlty caused undue delay in the project to be completed on time.

Mr. Jagdish Patel, General Manager of Vegpro Ghana Limited, the site irrigation farm comapnay that would take over the project when completed said, the irrigation farming would benefit most farmers in the area to earn a decent living.

He said the soil and the temperature in the area was good , saying for a start the company would plant “Baby-corn study the irrigation mechanization to distill the soil for vegetables  and flowers growing.

According to the Farmer General Manager, the Ghana soil and temperature was good, for in his observation, when the company plants same maize in Kenya, it takes 85 days to grow, but in Ghana it takes 49 days which therefore means that farmers would get on board with the irrigation stand to make more that five times harvest in a year.

He noted that the company is currently irrigating on 64,000 hector land and expect to irrigate on a 30,000 hector land.

Mr. Okudzeto Ablakwa however appealed to the Vergpro irrigation company to employ most of the farmers in the traditional area so they could engage actively after normal farming seasons to make a better living.

At the Aveyime Irrigation project, the Managing Director of Prairie Volta Limited,  formerly known as the Aveyime rice project in the Volta Region Mr. Everett Anderson told the MP that the company  is seeking a $5 million dollar funding to enable the farm develop over 6 thousand hectares of land for cultivation of rice for local consumption and export.

He said currently, 750 hectares of land have been developed, whiles some 600 bags of rice were cultivated last year, adding that the 5million dollar funding will be used to expand irrigation infrastructure, provide seeds and agronomy service to farmers and procure tractors and combine harvesters to effectively cultivate the land during each harvest season.

According to him, the farm on the average produces 26 to 30 tones of rice a day cumulating to 20 bags of rice, adding that from 2009 to 2012 the company produced Annual General Revenue of 50 million dollars from sales and a net profit of 30% of the annual revenue.

The Prairie Volta Limited is holding 40% shares on the Aveyime rice project, while the Government of Ghana and Development Finance of the Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) holds 30% respectively.

Mr. Okudzeto Ablakwa also visited the Aveyime Cattle range where he promised to expand the dugouts for reserving waters for the cattle.

He said livestock farming is one of the sector in the Agriculture industry that government would like to venture into seriously to  reduce the import of cool food from outside and that he would use his outfit as an MP to assist the farm.

The farm Manager of the Aveyime Cattle Range, Mr. Charles Okyere Darko, said the farm currently has 10,000 hectors of land, 2,005 cattle and 9 dugouts for the farm and that more plans are far advance to increase the number of the cattle..

He said the farm also faced with some challenges including, accommodation for workers and management, poor salary and payment for the workers, poor electricity, and lack of tractor to harvest grass and vehicles for movement, saying the farm has only one pickup which is over age and frequently broke down.

He therefore appealed to government and the MP for assistance, saying that the farm has the potential of feeding half of the country population on animals’ food products.