EFFORTS TO GROW MORE SOYABEANS (PAGE 14)

THE government is negotiating with the Chinese and Indian governments for the procurement of equipment for the cultivation of soyabeans in large quantities.
Currently, many farmers are engaged in the production of the crop, but unlike maize, there are no planting and harvesting machines for the cultivation of soyabean which has a high nutritional value.
The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Mr Kwesi Ahwoi, who disclosed this after a familiarisation tour of Ghana Nuts Limited (GNL), an agro-processing company at Techiman in the Brong Ahafo Region, advised farmers who are engaged in the cultivation of the crop to form co-operatives to make maximum use of the equipment on arrival.
The management of GNL said the company had the capacity to buy all the soyabeans produced by the farmers to process into oil.
Mr Ahwoi said now that there was a ready market for the crop, his ministry would hasten the negotiations for the early delivery of the machinery.
He consequently directed that a well-skilled agro-logistic team comprising his ministry and the GNL should meet immediately to discuss the way forward towards the mass cultivation of the crop.
The Deputy Managing Director of the GNL, Mr Prince Obeng Asante, said it was the vision of the company to become the agro-processing centre of excellence within the sub-region.
He said, the company had a total workforce of 997, 454 of them women, who were engaged in the production of soyabean oil, soy meal, lethicin, soap stocks, shea butter, shea meal, rice bran oil, rice bran meal, cotton seed oil, cotton seed meal, among other agro-products, for both industrial and household consumption, as well as for export.
He disclosed that to make for value addition, the company was into the generation of electricity using shea meal to fuel the steam turbine, while it also generated 3.5 megawatts of power; one megawatt for factory use and 2.5 megawatts sold to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
Mr Asante said for enhanced value addition and extension, the GNL processed 4,000 tonnes of meat and fish from its fish and poultry farms per year, 25,000 tonnes of soap per year and 60,000 tonnes of maize into maize oil, maize meal for poultry and maize grit for the brewery industry, as well as corn flakes.
He appealed to the government to hand over the Ejura Farms in the Ashanti Region to the company to enable the management to undertake large-scale mechanised soyabean cultivation, adding that the company also needed easy access to farm machines, financial resources, storage facilities, extension services, support for soyabean and groundnut production and a level playing field in the cooking oil industry, among other requests.
On the company’s corporate social responsibility, the deputy managing director disclosed that his outfit had renovated and adopted the Children’s Ward at the Techiman Holy Family Hospital and developed a modern laundry service at the hospital.