Oil Palm Outgrowers Association acquire new office complex
The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Mr Clement Kofi Humado, has inaugurated a GH¢285.569 office complex for the Oil Palm Outgrowers Association (OPOA) at Twifo Ntafrewaso in the Central Region. He called on the members to step up the cultivation of oil palm to help increase crude palm oil production in the country.
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He said the present 32,000 metric tonnes shortfall in the supply of crude palm oil in the country was likely to increase to 127,000 metric tonnes by the year 2024.
Mr Humado said filling the supply gap could create 141,000 direct jobs in the country and increase the hectares cultivated from the current 312,000 hectares to 564,000 by 2024.
The office, sponsored by the Agence Francaise de Development, will help with the effective administration of the over 1000-member association.
Mr Humado said about 80 per cent of the palm oil produced in the country was consumed as food and that would result in more demand for palm oil in the foreseeable future.
By 2020, the world will need 28 million tonnes of vegetable oil annually so there was an urgent need to meet this deficit.
Mr Humado said 6.3 million hectares of oil palm would have to be cultivated, if the demand for palm oil was to be met. He, therefore, urged the outgrowers to expand their farms.
He also assured the farmers that the government would continue to support them by subsidising fertiliser and other farming inputs to enable them to increase their acreage of the farms.
Mr Ebo Biney, National President of OPOA, expressed concern about the poor nature of roads in the Central and Western regions, the operational areas of the association, and said that delayed the transportation of their produce to their buying agencies.
He, therefore, urged the ministry to help rectify the situation to ensure easy transportation of the oil palm.
He also said the association planned to set up a credit union to help meet the financial needs of farmers.
