Cape Coast, June 22, GNA – An Assistant Director of the Cape Coast Metropolitan Assembly (CCMA), Mr. Samuel Yirenkyi Appiah, on Tuesday advised farmers and food processors not to depend solely on promises of loans, but invest their profits to enhance their capital base.
He noted that people would be willing to partner them if they knew their businesses have a firm financial standing.
Mr. Appiah gave the advice at a stakeholders? forum organized by the Root and Tuber Improvement and Marketing Project (RTIMP) in collaboration with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) in Cape Coast.
The RTIMP is a project that supports farmers who are into roots and tuber plantations such as yam, cassava and sweet potatoes, with funds and also assist in the marketing of the produce to food processors.
Mr. Appiah advised the participants to set their priorities right and desist from impulse buying, but rather invest their profits into their businesses to step up productivity.
He also called on food processors to come up with attractive and interesting packaging for their products, saying, no matter how good a product was packaging could put consumers off.
The Programme Officer of RTIMP, Mr. Fredrick Oteng-Mensah, said there was the need for food processors to keep their tools as well as environment clean, and ensure that they observed good personal hygiene, in order to avoid health hazards.
He said one successful product of RTIMP was Potoghurt, yoghurt produced from potatoes.
He asked them to form cooperatives to enable them solicit for loans to support their businesses.
The Metropolitan Agricultural Officer for Cape Coast, Mr. Isaac Kofi Golokumah, urged farmers to go into potato farming because it was now being used for industrial purposes such as non-alcoholic beverages, pastries, jam, starch, and yoghurt.
A participant suggested that students should also be included in the project in order to learn more about agriculture, and eventually reduce the spate of unemployment in the country.
GNA
