Chairman of the Competitive African Rice Platform (CARP), Yaw Adu Poku, has revealed that Ghana is in no position to ban the importation of rice.

According to him, rice production in the country is not enough to attend to domestic consumption. He lamented that the decline of domestic rice supply gives little room to consider the prospects of banning rice import in the country.

Mr Poku indicated that there is the need to put pressure on the local economy to shore up production of rice in the country, as players in the country are ready to partner with government.

“The truth is that we are not in a position to ban the importation of rice, even onions, we are not in the position, simply because we need to fill the gap and we are not ready to fill that gap yet. So, we have to let it be a gradual process. The sad story is that Ghana has abundance of lands, the traditional rulers are more than eager to give their lands out for farming. We have a whole army of farmers who are willing and ready to go in there and farm.”
Yaw Adu Poku

Furthermore, Mr Poku described Ghana’s rice yield as “terrible” due to the lack of needed infrastructure and training. Owing to this, he explained that the price of local rice becomes so high to the point where it cannot compete with the imported rice. This, he highlghted, must be tackled.

“The other thing is that rice is not just like planting maize or soy, you need a lot of input, which is not readily available. So, it becomes a very difficult job – those interventions are what we need. As to the private sector, yes, a lot of well-heeled people are looking at the rice sector now and thinking about going into it. Their fear is that will they not be challenged with the import, which is real. That will be government decision, but that decision will only be executed when government feels that we are in a position to supply and fill the gap, which we still are not there.”
Yaw Adu Poku

Among other things, he stated that the lands and farmers are ready to be put to use, but there are also the challenges with equipment to make it work.

Encouraging local rice production under PFJ II

Emphasizing the need to encourage local rice production, Mr Poku noted that Ghana needs about 3 million metric tonnes of paddy to translate to about 1.8 million tonnes of milled rice – which makes up for rice consumed internally.

Reacting to the launch of the Phase II of the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) by President Akufo-Addo, which will see the strengthening of linkages between actors along eleven selected agricultural commodity value chains broadly categorized into grains, roots and tuber, vegetables and poultry, Mr Poku highlighted that Ghana consumes in excess of 1.5 million metric tonnes of milled rice, hence the need for government to ensure its success.

“So, if we are launching the PFJ II, this is where I will humbly plead with the minister to [look into it], and then we will get a very good programme going which will take out the $1 billion that we exchange to bring rice. It has a chain effect, it will definitely go into maize, and once it gets into maize, soy will follow and then poultry will also be available, so that all this money that we take to bring in this consumable will find itself into the local economy and enhance the wealth creation.”
Yaw Adu Poku

Moreover, the chairman of CARP emphasized that government must show real commitment in the second phase of the PFJ. He revealed that it must go beyond the “fanfare, drum-playing and the media” publicity, and handle the programme effectively.