Northern Regional Minister launches "Lolandi Rice"

Tamale, Dec 17, GNA - Mr Ernest Debrah, the Northern Regional Minister, said on Wednesday that although the local market for rice is large and expanding the production could not satisfy it. Thus, a field day is created for importers, who bring in about two thirds of the country's rice requirement.

He said importation of rice costs the country about 100 million dollars annually. "The huge imports take place in spite of the great potential for rice cultivation, especially in the Northern Region." Mr Debrah was launching the "Lolandi Rice", locally produced, processed and packaged parboiled rice developed by the Lowland Rice Development Project (LRDP).

He said there are extensive lowlands in the region, which are estimated at more than 400,000 hectares and if utilized, could produce 1,200,000 tonnes of paddy rice annually.

The Regional Minister said since the local parboiled rice was not supported by publicity and advertisement, it was relatively unknown in Southern Ghana where the majority of rice consumers are. "To alleviate the disadvantages suffered by local parboiled rice and promote its consumption the government has made it a policy for local rice to be purchased and consumed by government-subvented institutions."

Mr Debrah said rice production in the valleys of the north is constrained by the absence of water control systems, which consequently leads to high risks and non-intensive cropping practices and therefore to low yields.

He said the Lowland Rice Development Project was therefore established to overcome these constraints of rice production by demonstrating production and processing methods.

Mr Debrah said within the past five years the LRDP had developed 372 kilometres of bunds covering 1,000 hectares of lowlands on which farmers' yields had been raised from one tonne per hectare to more than three tones per hectare.

The Regional Minister commended the French Government through the Agence Francaise de Developpment (AFD) for its assistance to the LRDP that demonstrated that given the opportunity and the right condition, "our farmers and processors can produce a product that is second to none in the world."

Mr Sylvester Adongo, Northern Regional Director of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, said the quality of the Lolandi Rice is comparable to the best in the market, imported or local.

He said the rice industry in the region witnessed a phenomenal growth in the 1970s and by 1976 a state of national self-sufficiency of 99.2 per cent in rice was achieved.

He said, however, that between 1980 and 1990, the one time booming rice industry in the region started declining rapidly, attributing the decline to subsidy removal, unfavourable agricultural loan schemes with exorbitant interest rates, lack of effective land management and conservation and unrestricted trade liberalization.

Mr Adongo said with the intervention of the LRDP, the rice industry again sprang into full operation adding, "farmers who had abandoned rice farming came back fully into rice production".

The Regional Director noted that rice consumption rate in the country has been rising and now ranges between 300 and 400 tonnes annually, which stand at about 100 million dollars.

He expressed the hope that with good marketing strategies "our Lolandi rice will not only be patronized internally but internationally". Mr Emmanuel Tetteh-Bio, the Project Manager of the LRDP, said the Project was established in mid-1999 to introduce intensive rice cultivation in the Northern Region

He said since its inception, LRDP had been working with 2,500 rice farmers and trained 306 women rice processors adding, "we have opened a credit line for them, which is managed by the Agricultural Development Bank".

The Project Manager said the farmers are given 600,000 cedis while the women processors are given between 1,000,000 and 1.5 million cedis to purchase paddy rice for processing.

He expressed regret however, that while the women had a loan repayment record of between 90 and 98 per cent the farmers could manage only 56 per cent record.