The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) has initiated the processes required to convert the Aveyime Cattle Ranch into a rice farm.
The rice project will be operated under a public-private sector arrangement and the decision was informed by the government�s directive to MoFA to go into rice production to increase rice yields in the country
The Director of Legal Affairs of MoFA, Mr Seth Mensah Dumogah, disclosed this yesterday when answering questions on compensation payments to claimants of the land on which the cattle ranch is sited at the Judgement Debt Commission sitting.
The government acquired the 10,000 hectares at Aveyime in 1976 and used it for the rearing of cattle and milk production.
There were a few cattle at the ranch now, according to Mr Dumogah.
Compensation
He said it was only the CarMichael Family, out of the 12 claimants to the land, which had been paid compensation by the state.
The CarMichael Family was paid $2,640,000 compensation in 2009 for the confiscation of the Aveyime Livestock Project belonging to the family.
The project was situated on a portion of the 10,000 hectares used for the cattle ranch.
Mr Dumogah said the claimants did not put in any claim requests at MoFA for payments.
Rather, he said, some of them, once in a while, invited MoFA to court on the issue of compensation.
He indicated that all those cases had been thrown out by the court.
Mr Dumogah said the land was still intact, except for a few instances of encroachment.
Delta Food
Responding to questions on the payment of $4.9 million in judgement debt, in addition to a principal of GH�2 million, to Delta Foods, he said MoFA was not aware of the case.
The case was, therefore, adjourned to July 30, 2014 to enable Mr Dumogah to locate the documents on the case.
According to counsel of the Judgement Debt Commission, Mr Dometi Kofi Sokpor, the delay on the part of the state to effect the payment of GH�2 million to Delta Foods resulted in the company taking the case to a court in the United States of America (USA).
The court, he said, ordered the Ghana government to pay Delta Foods an additional $4.9 million for the delay in paying the GH�2 million.
Mr Sokpor said the state finally made payment of both the GH�2 million and $4.6 million to Delta Foods.
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