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Former Ghana president Jerry John
Rawlings (in the green attire) being assisted to present
Harchavari Singh Cheema (middle) the Best National Farmer
Award |
Accra
(Ghana): Former Mumbai textile worker Harchavari Singh
Cheema, who came to Ghana 40 years ago, is today a celebrated
farmer and one of the most successful Indians in the west African
country.
From an initial export of about 70 tonnes a year, today Cheema's
Param Farms exports 120 tonnes of vegetables a year. Ghana, a
country of 24 million people, is known the world over for cocoa
exports.
"I arrived in Ghana in 1972 to work as a manager for the then
Glamour Stores - a supermarket chain - but some years later, the
country's economy started to go down and this affected the textile
industry and I had to leave the chain to do something on my own,"
Cheema, 64, told IANS in an interview.
Cheema, who hails from Amritsar in Punjab, said: "I initially
started a poultry farm at Gomoa Pamfokrom in the Central Region. I
used to grow maize to use as feed."
Unfortunately, the poultry sector also started having problems, so
he started a small textile manufacturing unit in Accra, Ghana's
capital. "But this also suffered a lot because of the trade
liberation that the government initiated in the 1980s."
"Coming from a farming background, I had no choice but to get back
to farming again. I decided to produce 25 different varieties of
Asian vegetables for export to Europe," he added.
He has been awarded by two presidents - as the Best National
Farmer in the vegetable sector in 2006 and the Best National
Farmer award in the food crop sector in 2004.
From a small farm in Weija in Accra, he moved to other areas
outside Accra, including Bawjiase in the Central Region, Akatsi in
the Volta Region, Old Akrade and Nsawam in the Eastern Region.
"The idea to spread was necessary because we did not want to
become victims of the weather. Therefore, the spread of the farms
enabled us to succeed even when the weather failed in other
areas," Cheema said.
Asked why he chose to remain in the country when Glamour Stores
went down, he said: "Ghana is a nice place to live and my children
were attending school which I did not want to disturb by returning
back to India."
Cheema described working in Ghana as a very good experience. "The
people are nice and if you do a good job, pay your workers proper
wages and meet your tax obligations, you would never encounter any
problem."
He said because of his success in Ghana other Indian investors
looking for opportunities had sought his assistance to establish
businesses here.
Cheema and a group of investors are in the process of establishing
a packaging company at Tema, near Accra.
(Francis
Kokutse can be contacted at fkokutse@hotmail.com)
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