OPINION: WHY I STILL MAINTAIN THAT KETU SOUTH MUNICIPAL ASSEMBLY CANNOT PLANT COCONUT AND HARVEST CASSAVA UNDER 1D1F INITIATIVE- Divine Kporha.
Thursday, June 18, 2020
My good people of Ketu South, please accept my warm greetings as I discuss why I believe a second thought should be given to our share of Government's One District, One Factory initiative which is aimed at supporting industrialization and providing job opportunities for us the people of Ketu South.
I wish to commend the Municipal Assembly led by the MCE, Hon. Elliot Agbenorwu for the works they have done on ensuring that Ketu South gets it's fair share of the national cake.
For the avoidance of doubt, I would like to draw the attention of my readers to some facts about our Municipality and they are as follows;
1. District Capital being DENU with 6,051 people; 1,696 households and 818 houses with Aflao being the largest town in the district with 37,350 people; 8,813 households and 4,116 houses in all has a population of 193,549 (est. based on 2018 Projections) putting us at the 3rd population rank in the Volta Region with 39,119 households.
A survey conducted by the University of California, Local Government Service and the International Growth Centre which sought to assess the manufacturing capabilities in Ghana's districts has served as a guidebook for the "One District One Factory".
Their findings are as follows;
1. Most common Primary or Intermediate crop that can serve as manufacturing inputs: COCONUT
2. Existence of organised cooperatives for this Commodity: NO
3. Existence of skills locally for processing and adding value to this Commodity: YES
4. Any current factory in the district that uses this commodity as inputs: NO
5. Any previous factory in the district that uses this commodity as inputs: NO
6. Possible reasons for factory closedown/collapse: N/A
7. Other manufacturing input goods in high abundance in the district: CASSAVA AND CLAY
8. Most common economically viable factory proposed by residents and district officials: COCONUT PROCESSING FACTORY
9. Potential places within district to locate Factory for profit maximisation:
a. KLIKOR
b. AGBOZUME
c. DENU
10. Potential Advantages:
1. High local demand for the product.
2. Low price of skilled and unskilled labour.
3. Near to big consumer market, port and international borders.
The only potential challenge was the state of road network in the District with an estimated electricity coverage of 77.4%
Owing to these revelations, I applied and got selected to attend the 2019 International Coconut Festival organized by the African Coconut Group supported by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Ministry of Local Government & Rural Development and the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture from 24-26 September, 2019 which coincided with the period within which Ketu South Municipal Assembly distributed Coconut seedlings to farmers. I applauded the MCE in a social media conversation where I reiterated that, this was a good decision owing to the fact that Ketu South was going to reposition itself towards a robust and competitive coconut industry.
The MCE, Hon Elliot Agbenorwu turned to his Facebook handle to make a post about this new development. And this is what he had to say; "In order to kick start successfully government's Planting for Export and Rural Development (PERD) Program, the Ketu South Municipal Assembly has distributed 5,000 pre Germinated Coconut Seedlings free of charge.
These Coconut seedlings will also serve as a raw material base for the successful take off of government's One District, One Factory (1D1F) initiative in our municipality.
Last year, we distributed 3,000 and we are looking forward to distributing over 10,000 seedling next year."
Then Mrs Sylvia Dela Awuye of Holy FM interviewed the Municipal Agric Director, Mr. Williams Ayiteyvi, he could only agree to the voice of the people stating that "we have selected coconut because we know the soil is good and the factory will produce coconut oil on large market."
At this point, one could reason with me that though, cassava is one of the input goods in the District, it cannot be our ultimate choice to explore.
As part of the survey, households were interviewed and they unequivocally chose coconut as the highest commodity and the Municipal Chief Executive selected CLAY as the highest commodity.
So if we are to agree on anything as a Municipality, it is in my considered view that we should be looking at how to industrialize a robust Coconut industry Or Clay for our benefit and not CASSAVA!
10 REASONS WHY COCONUT REMAINS THE PREFERRED OPTION
1. Coconut plantation withstands varied weather condition and highly disease or drought resistant.
2. It is considered the 'Tree of Life' - a very healthy tree.
3. Less labour intensive
4. Very lucrative
5. Nut and highly delicious juice on high demand
6. Long life span
7. Non perishable
8. Coconut has varied uses ranging from tree to fruit.
9. The dwarf coconut bears fruits early (18-36 months).
10. Coconut is Self pollinated and requires less space.
The rich nutritional value of coconut oil (improving mineral absorption, especially calcium and magnesium, helps stabilize blood sugar, supports immune system, promotes heart health promotes weight loss not forgetting the antioxidant, antifungal, antibacterial and antiviral benefits just to mention but a few.
The health benefits of coconut milk which has proven to improve digestion and relieve constipation, provides electrolytes and prevents fatigue, may help prevent anaemia, and helps prevent ulcers among others cannot be underestimated.
Ketu South Municipal Assembly accepting the challenge to meet the strategic local content industrialization drive through the conversion of coconut shells into activated carbon for gold recovery and water purification would liberalize the development agenda of the Municipality.
The case of Feanza Industries in the Elembelle District of Western Region is one of the only factories under the 1D1F processing coconut oil which seeks to provide job for 1,660 people.
Ketu South will create job opportunities for more than 10,000 people including women and young entrepreneurs to supply the local market and in the nearby future consider the global export market.
This an opportunity we cannot miss.
KETU SOUTH will be a game changer if we strategize to accept a One District One Factory that will promote business and entrepreneurship in the coconut industry.
We can do this!