A small group of farmers heaves bulging, fifty-pound sacks of rice and piles them one on top of the other. It is a sweltering 45 degrees, and sweat drips from their faces, and drenches their clothes.
They stack the blue and white bags, until they nearly reach the ceiling of the gigantic warehouse.
Godlieb Agoku, the outgoing president of a rice cooperative in Asutuare, stands watching the farmers. At 73 years old, he's seen Ghana's rice industry change for the worst - from a once thriving industry, to one facing near collapse. He says this year is particularly bad.
"As I see this rice here, it is making my heart expand," says Mr. Agoku sadly. "Because I don't think a farmer who has a program for himself and who wants to use rice production as a business will just bag and pack without any payment or any encouragement to produce.
It is a pain in my heart." About 2,500 farmers belong to the rice cooperative. By joining, farmers are able to get easier access to loans, plus they get about one hectare of land each.
The cooperative is also supposed to help farmers gain access to the local market and guarantee them a fair price. But with so much stockpiled rice - it's clear something is wrong.
Farmers complain that consumers are choosing foreign rice over Ghanaian rice because they think it is of better quality.
Charles Hornbey, a member of the cooperative, says this infuriates him because he thinks Ghana has the potential to feed its own people.
"The Ghanaian perception is anything that comes from outside the country is better than what is produced inside," says Mr. Hornbey. "But I tell you our rice is a very palatable rice if you taste it! It has all the nutrients you need."
But it's not just consumer preference that's driving the market - there are larger forces at work. In the 1980s, the IMF and the World Bank gave multi million dollar development loans to Ghana. To get those loans, the country had to reform its agriculture sector, including opening up Ghana's market to imported goods and lowering tariffs - so now heavily subsidized foreign rice fills local shops. The IMF and World Bank now admit that such conditions do not help the world's poor, so world leaders are holding talks with the World Trade Organization in Hong Kong from December 13th to 18th to address such issues.
Ghana has only farmer attending the WTO talks - Nashiru Mohammed, President of the Peasant Farmer's Association. About 36,000 farmers belong to the association, but Mr. Mohammed hopes to eventually register all of Ghana's five million farmers. Given the number of farmers in the country, Mr. Mohammed is disheartened that he is going Hong Kong alone.
"I would have wished to have a group of farmers from Ghana. And even to have a Ghana stand. But it's unfortunate we were not able to have access funding for this trip to Hong Kong," says Mr. Mohammed. "What I'm even getting is a result of sympathy from my friends out side Ghana who said, no, I should be in Hong Kong to support them."
He says he will work behind the scenes, lobbying with farmers from other African nations and various NGOs.
Mr. Mohammed's ultimate goal is have wealthy countries remove, or at least lower, their agricultural subsidies.
American subsidies are particularly hefty - in 2003, the US paid $1.3billion in rice subsidies to its farmers and sold the crop for $1.7billion, effectively footing the bill for 72 per cent of the crop.
"We have been hoping for fair trade, not free trade," he says. "We need to make the playing field a level one for all of us to compete."
He also wants Ghana to impose stiff tariffs on imported goods such as cotton, poultry and rice.
But accomplishing these goals could prove difficult for Mr. Mohammed.
Ghana's Ministry of Trade and Industry does not view the problem - or the solution the same way. The official who represents Ghana in the World Trade Organization processes, Emmanuel Sae-Brawusi, says there is no evidence to prove that the problems with Ghana's rice industry are caused by foreign imports and he does not support raising tariffs.
"Raising tariffs very quickly for protection is not very good policy.
Especially since we have not identified the real problems," explains Mr. Sae-Brawusi. "The problems could come from subsidies; the problems could come from dumping. But they must be identified so you are sure of what you are doing."
The government official overseeing the rice cooperative in Asutuare, Thomas Sekou, also disagrees that imported rice is killing the local industry. He believes that the answer to solving Ghana's agriculture problems lie not with trade reform, but with technology.
"You find that in our country now people bag our milled rice into American bags. They will take the long grain ones and put them in bags and you cannot tell the difference!" he says with a laugh. "So it is not that it's American rice, it's just the technology. It's just the method of processing and the marketing presentation." Farmers agree, but say they don't have access to the technology. There are only a handful of milling machines in the country.
The cooperative in Asutuare is lucky to have one, but still farmers cannot find a market for their rice.
"The most suffering stage of it is after harvesting now. There is no ready market for the rice," explains one exasperated farmer in the cooperative. "So you are compelled to sell the rice at any price at all! Which when you calculate was not even going to meet your production costs."
Farmers are also running out of storage space for their stockpiled rice. The rice that has been packed away, might actually germinate before it is even sold.
Mr. Agoku looks around the jam-packed warehouse in Asutuare and sighs. "If rice is taken as a business, every farmer will be happy," he says. "We produce it and they don't buy it. So you have to (wait) until it is purchased and you find the strength again to go back into the field."
Rachel Houlihan, Journalists for Human Rights, with files from Bismark AvornuAfrica News
