The Co-ordinator of the President’s Special Initiative (PSI) on Cassava, Mr Kwaku Bonsu, has given the assurance that the Ayensu Starch Company (ASCo) will start operations by the end of March this year. He said the company only suspended operations to repair its effluent treatment pond, an essential component of the factory, and carry out other modifications to the plant. He said the plant, being the first of its kind in the country, was faced with some teething difficulties which needed to be surmounted, adding that management was taking time to correct all those problems before re-starting operations. “We should have in mind the novelty of the project. We should think critically through the problems and design more lasting solutions,” Mr Bonsu said. He was speaking after the Daily Graphic had paid a random visit to the factory site at Bawjiase in the Central Region to ascertain at firsthand the state of affairs at the factory. The visit revealed that although the factory had shut down since April last year, the engineer, with the help of other factory workers, had been carrying out regular maintenance on the plant to forestall wear and tear. Mr Bonsu, who is also the acting Managing Director of ASCo, said the company had to re-reconstruct a bigger effluent pond, which the Irrigation Authority of Ghana, which provided the design, had estimated to cost ¢5.7 billion. He said the company was also awaiting a report from a Swedish engineer who was also invited to suggest and design an estimate. “While waiting, we have decided to carry out repair works on the remaining sedimentation pond and do engineering work on the pipes to free the chokes, as well as at the factory premises,” he said. Mr Bonsu said another problem which plagued the factory — delay in the payment for raw materials — would be resolved to encourage the farmers to supply to the factory. Before the closure, payments to cassava farmers who supplied to the factory were delayed, sometimes for weeks, a situation which caused some of the farmers to divert their produce to the open market. He said apart from re-negotiating with banks to continue their financial support for the factory, the company would also offer incentive packages to encourage farmers. “Some of the incentives are loans and subsidies on chemicals,” Mr Bonsu said. The PSI Cassava Co-ordinator said ASCo would go into nucleus cultivation, where a large stretch of land would be owned by the company and leased to farmers, on the understanding that all the produce would go to the factory. That, he said, was the surest way of preventing diversion and getting the real impact of agronomic practices with which the farmers would be provided, at the expense of the company. “We want to, as much as possible, control about 70 per cent of the raw material supply and leave 30 per cent in the hands of others,” he said. Before the company’s paralyses, it had several orders, including a 450-tonne a month order from Nestle , which was anticipating to make ASCo its supplier of industrial starch to some of its plants in other countries. It wanted the order increased to about 6,000 tonnes a month. Mr Bonsu said since the temporary closure, the company had been receiving orders which it had to turn down, establishing the point that buyers were no problem to the factory, only the supply side constraints. He said the company was also in the process of ordering some spare parts as back up for the factory to ensure year- round operations without breakdowns. During the visit, the Daily Graphic spoke to some of the farmers. They were upbeat about the future, saying, “We are confident that the plant will bounce back in March.” The President of the Ayensu Cassava Farmers Association, Mr Samuel Dodd, the Secretary, Mr Joseph Nyame, and Mr Bennette Ehuren, the Organiser, said the association needed soft loans and other incentives. They expressed their support for the block farming concept and said already some plots had been secured. According to them, the association would also help the company to check any diversion of produce to the open market. Graphic