Managing Director of Maphlix Trust Farms Limited, Mr Felix Mawuli Kamassah says he is poised to increase investments into farming activities in Dzodze in the Ketu North Municipality of the Volta region, in spite of funding challenges.
Mr Kamassah who is into the cultivation of vegetables, largely for export is confident of setting up a factory on site, which will go into the processing of Orange Fleshed Sweet Potato (OFSP) and cassava into a variety of food recipes.
The entrepreneur disclosed that a project proposal which among other initiatives will fortify cassava with sweet potato and come out with sweet potato gari had been submitted to the One District, One Factory Secretariat and the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI).
“When the factory is up, we are estimating an increment in employment to some 200 hands while out-growers will shoot to 500 to feed the factory,” he told this reporter.
In preparation for the intended expansion, the agribusiness entrepreneur who is also the president of the Vegetable Producers and Exporters Association of Ghana (VEPEAG) engaged the Ketu North Municipal Assembly and was given some 500 hectares of additional land to the existing 400 acres.
He has over 60 workers on the farm, half of which are permanent and the other half casual. During harvest times, he engages some 80 more people from surrounding communities to assist.
According to Mr Kamassah, the heavy reliance on human labour was due to the lack of equipment such as harvesters.
Mr Kamassah provides seedlings to some 120 out-growers from the community.
“We give out seedlings of vegetables that are required by the market to these out-growers; they plant, grow, we export produce and pay them,” he said.
Funding challenge
Even though Mr Kamassah is into large scale commercial farming, and his project has been captured under the One District, One Factory programme, lack of funding has stalled efforts at expanding farming activities to be able to meet high demand from the international fruits and vegetables market.
According to him, efforts to secure funding from local sources to scale up his activities were fraught with several bottlenecks, eventually proving futile.
Operational Challenges
The only source of water for the farms, a dam by the main ECOWAS highway is drying up and has become a major challenge for Mr Kamassah and his workers. The dam serves as source of water for domestic purposes by inhabitants of some five communities dotted around the farm.
Source: Nownews Ghana
