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Tamale, Ghana – Peasant farmers at Kpalkigbani in the Yendi Municipality in the Northern Region of Ghana, have appealed to President Nana Akufo-Addo to urgently intervene and provide the needed assistance to owners of Alafei Foods Company Limited to enable them establish their factories at Zugu as part of the one district one factory initiative.
According to the farmers, the establishment of six different factories including soya milk and soya textured meat factories by Alafei Foods would provide a great opportunity for them to sell their soya beans to the company.
Making the appeal during a meeting with the owners of Alafei Foods on Friday, the farmers said their farming business in recent years has not been good especially with regards to maize cultivation and other crops.
Thus, they said they have resorted to the cultivation of mainly soya beans which thrives well in the area but unfortunately, there is no ready market for them to sell it after harvesting. “We see the establishment of these two soya factories as a great opportunity for us and we are appealing to Nana Akufo-Addo to please help Alafei Foods to also help us out of poverty”, Salamatu told this reporter.
“We farm a lot of soya beans here. So if these factories are set up we’re sure our lives will improve. They will buy our soya beans when we farm it. There will be money to take care of our children in school and other family needs”, Kwaku said in a contribution during discussions at the meeting.
The farmers, who seemed to have lost hope in the government’s one district one factory initiative, wondered why districts in the Northern Region and the other adjoining regions in the north are being left out in the initiative whereas many districts in the Southern part of the country are benefiting immensely from it with full support from the government.
A former Assemblyman of Yendi Municipal Assembly, Mr. Fuseini who also attended the meeting, appealed to President Akufu-Addo to consider the poor situation of the people of Yendi and its surrounding communities and grant the wish of Alafei Foods so that they can start their factories and employ farmers to make money.
He said the business plan of Alafei Foods is one of the best and should be given the necessary support to materialize so that Yendi and Northern Region would have its fair share of the government’s one district one factory initiative.
The visit to Kpalkigbani was part of Alafei Foods efforts to raise awareness about its intention to set up an industrial base in the Yendi Municipality and also seek their views on the way forward when it eventually starts operation.
Managing Director of Alafei Foods, Claude Convisser, has been trying hard to seek funding since 2014 to start a multipurpose industrial base at Zugu in the Yendi area. The industrial base consists of plant oil extraction factory, soya milk factory, soya textured meat factory, vegetable sauce factory, tractor manufacturing factory and renewable electricity generation plant to power all industrial machines.
The project is expected to support 30,000 farmers in Yendi and other surrounding districts such as Saboba, Chereponi, Gushegu, Karaga, Bimbilla and Mion to grow soya beans and jatropha.
Farmers would also benefit from tractor services, farm inputs and extension services. Crops harvested would be directly purchased by Alafei Foods and profits shared with the farmers. About 500 direct jobs would be created within two years after establishing the six factories.
One of the food products Alafei Foods will manufacture from soya beans that would be grown by farmers in the aforementioned districts is called textured soya protein also known as soya meat. It has twice the protein of lean beef and can be stored dry for a long time without the need for refrigeration.
The company first proposed to the Ministry for Gender, Children and Social Protection in March 2018 to supply this soya meat mixed with a prepared vegetable sauce for school children enrolled on the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) at a very low cost.
However, to be able to secure US$30 million to establish the six factories, Alafei Foods requires a letter of intent from the Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection who would have to buy the textured soya protein for the GSFP when they are eventually manufactured.
According to the Manaing Director of Alafei Foods, Claude Convisser, the Ministry has since delayed in signing the letter of intent for him and has rather given a Sunyani based company the go ahead to manufacture similar products for the GSFP.
By Savannahnewsonline.com/Philip Liebs
