The construction of a solar-powered rice mill under the One-District-One-Factory policy in Fumbisi, capital of the Builsa South District of the Upper East Region is progressing steadily.
It is aimed at addressing the problem of inadequate capacity for milling paddy rice. It also forms part of efforts by the government to boost the cultivation and consumption of rice produced locally.
Milling is a crucial step in the post-production of rice. The basic objective of a rice mill is to remove the husk and the bran layers and produce an edible, white rice kernel that is sufficiently milled and freed of impurities.
The inability of rice farmers to mill their paddy rice, especially those in the Fumbisi Valley came up strongly late last year when the farmers appealed to the government to intervene by buying their rice for the School Feeding Programme to prevent losses.
Currently, there is no rice milling facility in the Upper East Region and the farmers believe that with the increased interest in rice farming in the region, there is the need to get a mill in the region.
The Fumbisi Rice Mill factory is being constructed by a Chinese company Beijing Bumu International Engineering Company Limited.
It will not require electricity to operate. In an interview with Radio Ghana, the General Manager of the company, Zhu Huojian, said the rice mill is of high technological capacity and can remove all stones, making it comparable to rice anywhere in the world.
Currently, only 900 out of the five thousand hectares of rice fields at the Fumbisi valleys are being utilized, while the country continues to spend huge sums of foreign exchange in the importation of rice.
