GMB Queen leads campaign on brown rice

Ms Solace Ewoe Ekpedzor, the Representative of the Volta Region in ‘Ghana’s Most Beautiful’(GMB) in 2014, is leading a national campaign to promote the nutritional values of brown rice and other locally made products.

“My objectives are to harness Ghanaian foods through efficient preparation, processing and preservation for high patronage,” she told the Ghana News Agency in an interview in Accra on Wednesday.

“My passion is to promote local rice, refreshingly healthier yet Ghanaian! Let’s eat what we grow as a country, let’s promote what we grow, live healthily, eat organic,” she stressed.

Ms Ekpedzor said she hopes to reduce Ghana’s dependency on imported rice; introduce young entrepreneurs to rice farming; motivate farmers, and at least promote local foods through local consumption and exports.

She said she would also facilitate efforts to get women involved in small scale businesses to improve their lot.

The people of Likpe Traditional Area, in the Volta Region, where she comes from are highly endowed with the cultivation of brown rice. Brown rice production is also popular in the Northern Region.

Ms Ekpedzor is encouraging large scale production of brown rice and the quality of her products by buying directly from the farmers and processing the final products.

She has also formed a number of cooperatives of about 70 members who produce the rice directly for her to buy.

“For quality purposes I monitor the growth of the product and I make sure that it is organic fertiliser alone that is applied on them or no fertiliser at all.

“I make sure there are no weevils, broken grains, stones, chaff and other unwanted products and is well processed.”

She said since she has ready markets for the produce, it encourages large scale production of the crop.

Ms Ekpedzor listed leading supermarkets, shopping malls and eateries like Blue Mall, Pick & Fine, Manna, Bush Canteen at East Legon, Kuuks Mart, Afrikiko, and Max Mart where her products are for available, while Melcom has confirmed its interest to do business with her.

She would be a special guest speaker at the 10th anniversary of the 2005- year group of Mawuli Secondary School, her alma mater, from Friday, October 2, to Sunday, October 4.

Ms Ekpedzor who was a member of the group would use the ceremony, which includes Borborbor night, cooking and soccer competitions to promote brown rice, socialise and mentor the students to study hard to become useful persons to the society in future.

“I will use the occasion to talk about what inspired me to come this far as well as promote Mawuli Secondary School. I went through the school; the school did not go through me,” she said.

Ms Ekpedzor said she would also introduce her product, promote it through the cooking competition so that brown rice could be part of the menu of the students and talk about why Ghana should grow and eat only locally produced rice.

The 2005-year group would also donate cooking and dining tables as well as chairs to the school’s dining hall as a way of leaving a legacy to their alma mater.

Ms Ekpedzor was a product of the University of Ghana, Legon, and a final year student at GIMPA, Accra.

She is the Chief Executive Officer of Ewoe Company Limited.

Her passion for rice farming took her to Japan, where she conducted a survey on varieties of rice in that country in 2013.