Sixth General Meeting of CARD opens in Accra

The Ministry of Food and Agriculture has said Ghana as a country has acknowledged the need to provide the enabling environment suitable for the operation of private investments in rice production, processing and marketing.

Mr Fiifi Kwetey, Minister of Food and Agriculture, who said this in Accra, noted that this would lead to an increase in the production of local rice.

He said government would, therefore, provide a suitable water management and control facilities for effective rice production in the valleys and large tracts of lowlands.

Mr Kwetey’s speech was read on his behalf by Mr Seth Osei Akoto, Deputy Director Crop Services, Ministry of Food and Agriculture at Sixth General Meeting of the Coalition for African Rice Development (CARD) on-behalf of the sector Minister, which began in Accra on Wednesday.

The meeting attracted 20 partner organizations, six non-sub-Saharan African countries as South-South Cooperation partners, 23 CARD countries, and five non-CARD member African countries.

Mr Kwetey disclosed that the country was also working towards improving rice seed production, and as well establish an efficient distribution, marketing and dissemination processes.

He said research, capacity building and technology dissemination for rice and others were also very important areas that needed improvement, as well as enhance availability and access to mechanization services for rice cultivation, harvest and post-harvest handling processes.

The Agriculture Minister said Ghana was among the first line countries to be supported to develop a National Rice Development Strategy (NRDS) in 2009, indicating that the document after some years of making the necessary efforts to implement its proposed interventions had recently been revised.

Further to the NRDS, the coalition has also supported the country to develop a rice seed road map which is also being finalized for ministerial approval.

He said NRDS has been one of the documents guiding rice development in Ghana

CARD is a consultative group of bilateral and multilateral donors and African and International institutions launched in 2008 at the fourth Tokyo International Conference for African Development with the objective to double rice-production in sub-Africa by 2018.

CARD provides 23 African member countries and relevant partners with opportunities for coordination capacity development and other assistance to support the development of African rice sector.

CARD assistance includes the support in formulation of NRDS through which each country addresses issues along the rice value-chain in order to boost rice production.