By Omotayo Edubi
The President of the Artisanal Palm Oil Millers and Outgrowers Association of Ghana, Mr. Paul Kwabena Amaning, has indicated that Oil Palm has a huge economic potential that can significantly alleviate rural poverty as the Oil Palm sector does not only provide livelihoods to farmers but also many others along the value chain which include, operators, transporters, seed distributors and agro-inputs sellers.
Amaning reiterated that the sector also employs between 1,000 and 3,000 contractors during harvesting.
Specifically, he explained that farmers who engaged in oil palm commercialization arrangements analysed the poverty implications of participants in the arrangements, how these outcomes differed across different groups, the relationships between different arrangements and resource allocation to other crops as well as the different arrangements and the varying effect on other farm and non-farm enterprises.
He stated that oil palm should be considered a national priority crop because of its potential for reducing poverty, its wide geographical coverage, and its use as both food and cash crop.
He pointed out that currently, oil palm was the second most important out of 10 industrial crops, adding that between 2007-2019 oil palm grew from 680.781 metric tonnes to 1.896.760 metric tonnes creating about two million jobs across the value chain.
Mr. Paul-Kwabena-Amaning said oil palm had a large growth potential but unfortunately Ghana’s current crude palm oil production of 245 000 metric tonnes was unable to meet the global demand for the product.
On Findings in oil palm commercialization, he explained that 27 percent of farmers had direct sales to oil palm companies, 33 percent sold their products through agents, 29 percent independently sold on the local market while 11 percent processed it into palm oil, alcohol, and soap.
However, he insisted research also shows that 5.2 percent of the farmers who had direct sales to Oil Palm Companies (OPCs) had more capital with proximity to Oil Palm Companies.
‘”On livelihood outcomes, the research showed that farmers who sold their produce directly to the OPCs earned more and were happier, while those who sold through agents or sold independently on local markets were less happy,’’ Mr. Paul Kwabena-Amaning.
He revealed that there was a huge potential for enhancing the sector’s productivity, smallholder performance, and welfare access to financial and resources as well as the ability to deal directly with OPCs or independently process produce.