GADCO, a milling rice farm in the Volta region on Wednesday, March 23, 2022, hosted the GIZ-Move Project team at its milling plant.

The team was made up of representatives from ECOWAS Rice Observatory (ERO); a multi-stakeholder platform of public and private organisations to catalyse the development of the West African rice sector.

The visit was to give the team a first-hand experience of the rice milling process and learn the business model of GADCO, following the board meeting of the ECOWAS Rice Observatory held in Accra earlier in the week.

Among the visitors were representatives of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Islamic Development Bank, the World Bank Group, the Alliance for a Green Revolution for Africa (AGRA), AfricaRice, GIZ, JICA, among others.

After a brief welcome and introduction by the team, Joel Tsatsu, General Manager for GADCO, presented on the activities of the GADCO Farm and the rice mill highlighting how the module has worked over the years.

During the presentation, Mr Tsatsu made known that the company’s rice farm is a community-based project where the community has leased lands for the cultivation of rice.

He mentioned that GADCO currently supports about 600 farmers located in 6 areas in the Eastern Volta by making available seeds and inputs for the farmers on credit and in turn, the farmers pay back with paddy after the harvest season.

Mr. Tsatsu mentioned that GADCO has trained field supervisors who ensures a monitoring routine exercise and support to farmers to enable smooth application of inputs.  

The Group CEO of RMG Concept, Mr. Yvan Dorier who was present stated that the support to farmers became necessary as the farmers were in dire need of support amidst credit challenges.

Mr. Dorier made remarks of scarcity of fertiliser and the prevailing cost currently. Calling on farmers’ loyalty to continue this module. According to him the low rate of recovery from farmers and the risk incurred by high fertiliser prices is making it a challenge for the organisation to sustain the project in 2022.

He said the intervention is a great push to the community and the nation as it provides jobs for the people, especially women who are actively involved in the farm.

The Director- Agriculture & Rural Development of ECOWAS, Alain SY TRAORE in his remarks mentioned that there are member countries who produces fertiliser and encouraged that member states take advantage to buy from these countries instead.

Mr. SY TRAORE mentioned that the ERO’s vision is to collectively bring political and financial capital, partnerships, and expertise to achieve rice self-sufficiency in West Africa by 2030 through profitable, resilient, and environmentally sustainable farming and milling enterprises that contribute to rural economic growth, poverty reduction, and women’s equity.

GADCO is a subsidiary of RMG Ghana Ltd, one of the country’s leading agricultural companies in Ghana. GADCO has a Milling capacity of about 3MT/ hour, a Storage capacity of 1250MT, and a Dryer capacity of 20MT.

GADCO is currently working on 1,750 hectares of leased land developed into farming lands, roads, pump stations, etc.