Stop Importing Rice, Hunger And Starvation Is The Conclusion

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• KOLA ,LONDON PROPER 11 years ago

  Who said that you should stick to writing on Politics? Be bold and insert His/her name for us to know.
  
  Anyway, importing too much of rice is not the cause but could add to the cause of the depreciating Cedi. Whether compet ...
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  Who said that you should stick to writing on Politics? Be bold and insert His/her name for us to know.
  
  Anyway, importing too much of rice is not the cause but could add to the cause of the depreciating Cedi. Whether competitive advantage or disadvantage in producing the rice, the crucial bit is the BOP.

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• Philip Kobina Baidoo 11 years ago

  Kola, he is an inconsequential person, but the most important thing is the President believes the twaddle.

  Kola, he is an inconsequential person, but the most important thing is the President believes the twaddle.

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• KAKABO 11 years ago

  Uncle Baidoo you could not have said it better. I have always been angry when I hear our politicians blaming rice importation as the bane of our economic failures instead of looking at our inability to identify our problems c ...
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  Uncle Baidoo you could not have said it better. I have always been angry when I hear our politicians blaming rice importation as the bane of our economic failures instead of looking at our inability to identify our problems correctly and finding the most effective solution for them.There is no sane person who would want to spend his money on imported rice if locally produced rice is cheaper and has the same quality standard or better.
  Let us face fact, we as Ghanaians cannot compete with the Asians in the production and management processes of rice simply because rice production has been the core business of these Asians since the days of Noah. Let us ask the question as to when rice became a staple diet in Ghana. The answer is not more than 30 years ago. When we were children rice was never a staple diet. These Asians have produced rice and eaten rice since the days of Adam and yet we want to compete with them in the market. No it cannot work and it will never work.
  The next point is that the whole of Southern Asia is one big swampland. The climatic and topographical conditions are perfect for easy and cheap production of rice hence the competitive advantage of the Asians in rice production. We cannot even produce water for human consumption let alone irrigate fields and we are talking about efficient and competitive rice production.
  It is therefore important for our leaders to stop the nonsense of making rice importation the scapegoat for our policy inefficiencies. We can produce yam better than the Asians. What research have we done on yams, cassava and maize of which we have a clear advantage in terms of culture, history topography, soils and climate. Whiles the Asians have virtually forced the world to adopt rice as a staple food we can also through hard work, research and the use of our brains, force the world to eat yam of which we have clear production advantage. Through proper research to improve the variety and quality of yams we can force the food giants on the globe to adopt yam as an alternative to potatoes on their menu. Imagine how much we can make if we are able to get these global food giants to replace just 10% of their potato requirements for yam. The results will change more lives for the better that producing million barrels of oil per day. Non of the politicians are thinking in this direction because it involves too much hard work and there is no 10% kickback in a brown envelop to be had.Until we have leaders who will think with their god given heads let us not blame the importation of rice as the cause of our fiscal problems.

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• No Lie 11 years ago

  You can verify this.

  You can verify this.

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• A B Koranchie 11 years ago

  If you do not have anything to say don't waste our time.

  If you do not have anything to say don't waste our time.

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• Kojo T 11 years ago

  The emphasis should not be on rice only. We import even tooth pick

  The emphasis should not be on rice only. We import even tooth pick

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• SENDERO 11 years ago

  A very good piece. Congrats

  A very good piece. Congrats

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• Kwame 11 years ago

  Economics is a batter, if you have not a crop to sell in the market you sell your clothing and go naked. Mr. Philip John Baidoo Jnr. when you go to the market it is still like battering and if you do not have a crop to exchan ...
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  Economics is a batter, if you have not a crop to sell in the market you sell your clothing and go naked. Mr. Philip John Baidoo Jnr. when you go to the market it is still like battering and if you do not have a crop to exchange for a goat you sell your clothing and go naked.
  I am of the view that you have not eaten Ghanaian rice or you have done so for a long time. It is a fact that rice grown in Ghana is now better and cheaper than imported rice. I stopped buying and eating imported rice since 2007 and if you ask most people even in Kumasi they will tell you that the best rice comes from Afife in the Volta Region, cultivated by local farmers. That rice is not polished and is said to be the best by nutritionists.
  Afife is part of the Avu basin which is a flat water lock land with high small patches of land that is usually settlement. That topography extend from the Accra plains up to the border at Aflao. The vegetation in the central part of the country, central and western region are the same as compared with that of Viet Nam. You may be an economist, but your political economic assertion is like one saying that gunpowder was invented by the Chinese, thus Chinese are supposed to have the biggest arms in the world. Rice from the Northern part of he Volta Region is of various local variants, some of which because of their nutrition value Asians will not sell to you.
  It should have been taken with a pinch of salt if a person from my village says that we should not blame the colonialist and neocolonialism for our underdevelopment. In Europe there are various types of transport, but what did the colonialist left behind when at the time of colonialism we were said to be citizens of the metropolies, with the right to the same development as London.
  The fact that some of you hide or do not know is that China and India both have food production and food distribution state owned companies which buy state produced food together with that of private farmers, preserve them if necessary and sell them to the population.
  It is also a fact that aside rice we have other crops both cereal and root to cultivate and even feed both fowls and ruminants with. For instance Zimbabwe have poor vegetation but has more life stock than all the countries of west Africa put together.
  We must be serious with agriculture, food processing and food preservation as was the case in the early and middle 60s. We have crops when cooked can be preserved, but if is difficult to preserve any product from rice. Banku can take about 4 days to deteriorate, but a ball of rice is not good for the table just the day after.
  Not to mention that other corn and cassava products are preserved for weeks and months, even better than dry wheat products. A country like Lebanon, though with civil strive, yet grow and eat its own wheat and we can give you other examples.

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• KKO 11 years ago

  Kobina,
  That is a very good piece. I remember very faintly when my uncles and granduncles could choose to sell their cocoa to Cadbury or Leventis, before the corrupt, lazy and incestious Cocobod came into being. Although the ...
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  Kobina,
  That is a very good piece. I remember very faintly when my uncles and granduncles could choose to sell their cocoa to Cadbury or Leventis, before the corrupt, lazy and incestious Cocobod came into being. Although the producer price was the same, Cadbbury and Leventis had small incentives for whoever chose to sell to them.
  
  Today the famers see vey young Cocobod "Buyers" at the village buying cecntres making loads of money after only two or three seasons of being posted to these centres. Menawhile they make just about the same amount of money every year, after deducting their costs, and in some cases having to bribe Ccobod officers before they are paid for their OWN produce. Meanwhile their sons can now surf the worldwide net and tell them how much the government gets for selling the results of their toils on the world market, or how much they could get for a load if they were close enough to the Ivorian border!
  
  The result of all these negative factors is that a lot of the able bodied men and women have left the cocoa inudstry. Some have actually cut down the cocoa trees and gone into timber, maize or cassava farming. The end result is that the average age of the coca famer in Ghana is now about 55. Unless something is done and soon, the cocoa indusrty in Ghana will die in about twenty years. And now with the irresponsible legalisation of "galamsey" and oil discovery in the Western Region, that doomsday scenario may actually come earlier!
  
  We remunerate politicians very handsomely (perhaps more than they deserve), to solve the problems of the state, but most of our current lot are just ordinary clowns and pen robbers!

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• Dr Greddy Bhastardht, Oslo University 11 years ago

  Very thoughtful article indeed. Congrats

  Very thoughtful article indeed. Congrats

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• Oteng 11 years ago

  And so what is your piont.

  And so what is your piont.

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• Asiwome 11 years ago

  So why doesn't the government subsidize food production.

  So why doesn't the government subsidize food production.

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