The Cotton Growers Association of Ghana has appealed to government to take steps to save the cotton industry from collapse. According to the group, current happenings within the cotton industry if not immediately dealt with would cause the demise of the industry which is currently on a ‘life support system’. The local cotton industry has however been identified as a crucial element in government’s desire to save the local textile industry from extinction.

National Chairman of the association, Abdul Rahman Mohammed said the main problem facing cotton production is unreliable funding for farmers’ activities. He also called on government to include cotton farmers in such programmes as the fertilizer subsidy so that they would also be able to produce more cotton for the textile industry. He was very critical about the cotton trading companies in the country who had huge unpaid loans or had either turned bankrupt and was also not paying the farmers on time, due to paucity of funds. He requested the government to bring in competition in to the cotton trading industry by luring foreign investors, which would make the local traders sit up and not to take undue advantage of the cotton farmers.