Government sets up committee to reduce heavy rice imports

Bags of rice imports [File photo]

NRCC set up to ensure self-sufficiency in rice production

NRCC assures government support for Ghana rice production

Rice imports quantity stood at 950 thousand tonnes in 2020

Deputy Minister for Food and Agriculture in charge of Annual Crops who doubles as the chair of the national rice coordinating committee (NRCC), Yaw Frimpong Addo, has assured of government’s commitment to ensuring self-sufficiency in rice production.

The national Rice Coordinating Committee (NRCC) with the mandate to coordinate and create synergies among rice value chain stakeholders to boost production, processing, marketing and consumption of Ghana rice has been set up.

The committee has the broad objective of reducing the heavy rice imports into the country and to help boost farmer incomes and contribute to national food security.

This comes at a time when the country’s annual rice imports have been growing at an alarming annual rate of 12. 53 per cent from 1971 to 2020.

According to data in 2020, rice imports quantity stood at 950 thousand tonnes.

The country also spent GH¢6.87 billion on the importation of rice alone in the same period.

The 14-member NRCC has representatives from the sector ministry, the ministries of Finance, Trade and Industry, Local Government, the Ghana Rice Inter-professional Body (GRIB), and the John A. Kufuor Foundation as members.

Mr Addo in his address stated that government would continue to support the rice sector with the necessary tools to ensure productivity, enhancement and quality improvement through the installation of processing facilities and efficient domestic marketing systems.

“These call for a holistic approach and strenuous efforts by all stakeholders to work tirelessly to achieve the intended target,” he noted.

The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), with support from the Coalition of African Rice Development (CARD), constituted the National Rice Development Strategy (NRDS) with a goal of doubling domestic rice production within a 10- year period (2008 – 2018).