Oti MOFA organises rice durbar for stakeholders

Oti Regional Director of Agriculture (MOFA), Obrien Nyarko, has said Ghana rice or local rice has the potential to compete with the foreign ones when production is injected with technology and support for large scale production.

This could be backed with sustained advertisement and quality packaging.

He said MOFA was working hard to change this narrative in the agriculture value-chain.

Mr Nyarko, addressing the rice durbar said MOFA was receiving support from the Global Affairs Canadian and Modernising Agriculture in Ghana (MAG) are some of the interventions being implemented in the sector to bring the necessary changes.

He said one of such interventions was to facilitate and promote agribusiness for actors along the agriculture value-chain through market linkages.

Mr Nyarko stressed that rice was one of the major staple crops being cultivated in the region and it was cultivated across the entire region.

The Regional Director mentioned some of the different varieties of rice as "Viwonor, Jasmine 85, Amankwatia and Agra rice being cultivated in the region.

He said the Ghana rice, tagged as "local rice" had a lot of health benefits due to its nutritional level and freshness when compared with the imported rice, which has been stored for several years before being released onto the market.

He appealed to matrons, school feeding caterers and food vendors to patronise Ghana rice in preparing meals for the students and the public.

He entreated all to be good ambassadors for the promotion of Ghana rice to eventually create and sustain its taste and ultimately lead to the demand for the commodity thereby creating the needed market for rice farmers in the Region.

Mr Andrews Okumah Nawil, Oti Regional Coordinating Director urged the agricultural department to help farmers with extension services and the necessary inputs to enable them to expand production.

He emphasised that the Region's land supports all kinds of crops due to the rich nutrients in the soil.

Madam Harriet Nseafu, Caterer, Ghana School Feeding Programme, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that locally-produced rice had a good taste, with higher nutritional value and assured she would revert to the use of the commodity to prepare food for school children.