Tamale, July 29, GNA - Rice production in the Northern Region is expected to drop next year as most farmers now see its cultivation as disincentive and unprofitable.

For instance, 2,474 farmers operating under the Lowland Rice Development Project (LRDP) cultivated 1,088 hectares and produced 39,570 bags of paddy rice last year but they have not been able to find market for their produce.

Mr Emmanuel Tetteh-Bio, the Project Manager of LRDP told the GNA that 1,000 farmers within the catchment area of the project have cultivated 457 hectares of the cereal this year.

The LRDP, which is supported by the French Government, has the largest population of rice farmers and is operating in the Tamale Municipality, Savelugu/Nanton, Tolon/Kumbungu, Yendi, Gushiegu/Karaga and West Gonja Districts.

He said 165 farmers, who were with the project and could not pay their loans this year, had on their own, cultivated 407 hectares of rice.

Mr Tetteh-Bio attributed the expected drop in rice production next year to the lack of market for the farmers to dispose of last year's stock to enable them to pay back their loans to qualify for credit for this year. He explained that the early rains in May and June in the Region this year flooded the fields making it difficult for tractors to plough the farms for the farmers and thus affecting rice cultivation.

Mr. Tetteh-Bio said another difficulty facing the farmers was that rice in the area was of different varieties, which most traders did not like.

He said apart from those under the LRDP, all the other farmers were adopting the broadcasting method of rice cultivation on their fields, which had resulted in the loss to the air of about 60 per cent of the fertilizers that they applied on their fields.

The Project Manager said poor management among farmers was also contributing to the low yields and explained that the LRDP was encouraging them to make water ponds on their farms to promote good yields.

He announced that the LRDP has built warehouses in some selected communities for farmers to store their rice meant for credit repayment. Some of the farmers GNA interacted with, urged the government to protect the rice industry by provide ready market for their produce.

They appealed to the government to encourage Ghanaians to develop interest in the locally produce rice and to stop advertising foreign rice on the national television.

Most of them said they could not pay back their loans because middlemen who came to buy their rice brought bigger bags, which took two of their own bags to fill and yet they offered them unreasonable prices for their produce.