The Canadian government through the Ministry of Food and Agriculture has presented a total of 14 hand-held rice harvesters to two female rice-producing groups in the Atebubu-Amantin municipality under the ‘modernizing agriculture in Ghana’ MAG project.

The Sombo Rice Producers and Processors Association from Atebubu received 4 of the harvesters while their counterparts from Densi, the Nkabom ye group took away ten.

Presenting the items, the Atebubu-Amantin Municipal Chief Executive Hon. Edward Owusu said the gesture will go a long way to alleviate the plight of women who play very important roles in the lives of their families.

"He hoped that this will reduce the problem of children accompanying their parents to the farm to help with labor at the expense of their education," he said.

The MCE said the availability of these simple equipment can go a long way to increase rice production in Ghana and thus reduce the import bill.

The Bono-East regional agricultural officer in charge of crops, Mr. Eric Kontomah who deputized for the regional director of agriculture, spoke about the essence of group formation.

He said the 2 groups benefitted from the facility from among many other applicants due to their ability to meet some basic group requirements like: a registration certificate, minutes of meetings and bank statements adding that groups that have existed for more than 3 years and meet the above requirements stand to benefit from the project.

The Atebubu-Amantin municipal director of the Department of Agriculture Mr. Stephen Aidoo said his outfit will monitor the utilization of the equipment to ensure that they are put to the best use for the benefit of the farmers.



The municipal engineer of the Department of Agriculture Mr. Paul Dodoo who assembled the equipment, took the beneficiaries through the use and maintenance of the items.

Some of the women expressed their gratitude to government for the intervention which they hoped will make their work less tedious and attractive to other women.