Savelugu (N/R), July 17, GNA- Cotton farmers in the Northern Region have said the government's efforts at reducing poverty, especially in the three Northern Regions, can yield positive results by providing subsidies on agricultural inputs.

They attributed the poverty in the area to the withdrawal of government subsidies on agricultural inputs, saying that they were not poor during the time such subsidies were in place.

Speaking at a "Farmer's Forum" in Savelugu in the Savelugu-Nanton District, the National Secretary of the Cotton Farmers Association, Mr Mohammed Adam Nashiru said: "One thing that is clear to the people is that no matter what strategies the government adopts nothing meaningful would be achieved if there were no subsidies on agriculture".

The Executive Members of the seven zones in the district attended the forum to discuss the management of cotton fields and the group farming programmes and how it could be implemented to enhance production. Officials of the Ghana Cotton Company Limited (GCCL) who are sponsoring the farmers also discussed issues of indebtedness and diversion of inputs and produce by farmers.

The zones have 3,500 farmers who cultivated 3,200 units of cotton this year while 100,000 farmers in the region operating under the 11 cotton companies also cultivated 13,000 units of cotton.

Mr Nashiru said cotton production in the country had been going down on yearly basis and what one company used to produce in a year is now what all the 11 companies are producing.

He said the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB), which had been sponsoring the cotton companies, had withdrawn its financial support because of the huge indebtedness incurred by the companies. Similarly, dealers have also withdrawn supply of inputs to the companies resulting in low levels of production, he said.

Mr Mohammed Alhassan Bukari, Producer Organisation Training Officer of the GCCL, advised the farmers not to do anything that would destroy the cotton industry since any such action would be detrimental to the companies and urged them to cooperate to make the industry vibrant. Mr Bukari said each farmer was expected to produce an average yield of 600 kilograms of cotton per unit if the weather conditions were favourable by applying appropriate inputs.

Some of the farmers complained of delays in the supply of fertilizers and other chemicals while others spoke of poor germination due to bad seeds supplied to them by the cotton companies. They said a number of them had, therefore, replanted seeds but recent drought in some parts of the region had affected germination and growth. The farmers called for education on the group-farming programme to encourage more of their colleagues to register with the companies.