Dekpor Indigenes Celebrate Rice Festival

The Chiefs and people of Dekpor in the Ketu North Municipality of the Volta region, have held their annual “Morlu Za” (Rice Festival) with a call on all indigenes to unite for the development of the area.

At a colourful ceremony to climax the week long celebration, an elder of the community, Dumega Wilson Akey, who is also the Chairman for the Dekpor Development Committee, said, it was important for the people to pull together to initiate self-help projects and programs towards the socio-economic transformation of the community.

He observed that government alone could not fix all of the development shortfalls of every community across the country “and so all hands must be on deck if we wish to see a change in our society.”

Mr. Gabriel Kwamigah-Atokple Tanko, an aspiring parliamentary candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for the Ketu North constituency who was at the function, commended the people for their determination to champion their own cause.

He said rice cultivation in the area was a viable venture that needed to be harnessed and expanded to create more job opportunities for the people of the area, especially the youth.

“Having been trained into what we call, Public Private Partnership (PPP), i feel it is imperative that we see how best to partner with the private sector to do well for our people,” he said.

He said the Weta Irrigation Scheme, was one of the biggest in the country, producing thousands of tonnes of rice annually.

He called for efforts to ensure that a lot more was done to establish rice milling factories and out-grower schemes in the enclave “to empower our people.”

Dr. Donald Agumenu another NDC parliamentary candidate hopeful who was also at the durbar, said, in order to improve the livelihoods of the people of the area and for that matter, the general population of the country, there was the need to invest more into rice cultivation.

“You would agree with me that, if we want to alleviate poverty and put food on the table of the average Ghanaian and have a buffer-stock for export, we need to invest more into agriculture and rice cultivation.

Dr. Agumenu said the amount of rice imported into the country on a daily basis, was taking a toll on the public purse, and called for efforts to equip local rice farmers, ensure quality control and encourage more people to go into rice cultivation and farming as a whole, to change our society.

Citations of honor were presented to some deserving individuals for their dedication to the betterment of the community.

The festival was celebrated on the theme: Uniting for development.”

By Leo Nelson