By Omotayo Edubi
Women in the palm oil business at Akyem Asuom in the Kwaebibirem Municipality of the Eastern Region in Ghana demands government support to allow them produce in large qualities.
The women made the appeal when the President of the Artisanal Palm Oil Millers and Outgrowers Association, Ghana, Paul Amaning, visited them today, Thusrday.
They complained about the hectic conditions they go through before the final stage of producing the oil saying it was not good for their health and their babies.
The women said the intense heat that meets them from the fire they use to prepare the oil and also the sun makes their work difficult. They therefore pleaded with the government to assist them with equipment such as tents to provide shade and simple modern machines that can make it easy and comfortable for their work.
They further added that the price that buyers offer them after going through such stress is nothing to write home about.
Amaning assured the women that government has put in place measures to help actualise their expectations.
He said the association and the German government have teamed up to train about 900 people in the various universities in the country to prove the system.
“When you check the value chain, I think there are a lot of things we need to resolve. Pricing of oil palm or CPO cannot be determined as of today because we need to engage all the stakeholders including (GOPDC), the bigger companies to come out with how the pricing will be determined.
“As an association, we keep on engaging the Tree Crop Development Authority to come out with the pricing formula and I think soon, we will solve that problem. In the oil palm business, there is nothing like a waste but it is here that we haven’t identified the purpose of it, for example, the sludge can be used as fat for animals as food.
“With our new system, we have developed we will be able to dam it well and process it into fat for animals like chicken and pigs,” he said.