Today in 2010: Farmers call on government to ban importation of rice

It is estimated that Ghana spends over $1.5 billion on the importation of rice.

The increasing taste for the consumption of foreign rice has caused a decline in the purchase of locally produced rice. It is on this backdrop, that farmers have called on the government to place a ban on the importation of foreign rice.

In 2010, the then President of the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana, Mohammed Adam Nashiru, advised the government to increase tariff on imported rice, this he believed could create a market for local farmers.

It is not clear as to whether Ghana’s rice production capacity can meet the demand of its population.

The Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture, Kennedy Osei Nyarko, in 2019 announced that the government plans to ban the importation of rice by 2022 to boost local rice production.

“Government has a plan and the plan is that we have given ourselves up to 2022 to ban rice imports into this country…government is doing so just to support the local rice farmers to make sure they get market and value for whatever we produce.”

Read the full story originally published on January 27, 2010, on Ghanaweb

Government has been asked to ban the importation of rice into the country and encourage the production and consumption of the foodstuff locally.

Mr. Mohammed Adam Nashiru, President of the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana, a civil society organization, who made the call, suggested to the authorities to increase tariff on imported rice, to create market for locally produced rice to increase the income of farmers to support the economy.

The leader of the Association was speaking at a meeting of rice farmers from the Tamale area, on Tuesday. Mr. Nashiru said the Upper West, Upper East and Northern Region Regions (the three Northern Regions) last year produced 500,000 metric tones of rice and could meet the local demand for the staple. He expressed worry that lack of interest and political will by successive governments to support rice production had led to low production of the crop in the country.

Mr. Nashiru called on government to take positive steps to support farmers to increase yield to reduce the country's high import bill on rice. Mr. Roy Ayariga, National Programme Coordinator of the Northern Rural Growth Programme, advised rice and maize farmers in the three Northern regions to increase output since local and external demand for rice and maize was high.

He encouraged farmers in the Northern Region to engage in dry season farming to increase production. The Single Mothers, operators of a restaurant in Bolgatanga, served local rice as lunch for the participants, to promote the consumption of the food in the country.