Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto
The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, has said practical measures are being put in place to ensure that local rice producers are protected from unbridled rice importation.
He said the Planting for Food and Jobs initiative was helping to increase the yield of farmers and without any carefully thought out measures, the farmers were going to be discouraged.
The minister said on Friday that “at the moment, we are in communication with 20 biggest importers of rice in this country. We are telling them that a time is going to come soon when they cannot do business and give rice farmers in Thailand, Vietnam and America an opportunity to overcome our own.”
“Our farmers were asleep because of the lack of government’s support … Therefore, if you want to import rice into this country, it means that you are taking away bread from the mouth of Ghanaian farmers and giving it to those in Thailand. What we are now saying is that, in two or three years’ time, we will work out an agreement for them (importers) to buy from local millers,” the minister added.
He said a technical committee set up by the ministry had been engaging rice importers on the need to start purchasing locally produced rice.