How was it boiled? It’s still raw?
On March 12, 2025, online news portals announced that Burkina Faso had officially lifted its cereal export ban to Ghana.
The story quoted Larry Gbevlo-Lartey, Ghana’s Special Envoy to the Alliance of Sahel States, as saying that the gesture followed intense diplomatic negotiations led by President John Mahama.
In 2023, Ghana imported US$342 million worth of rice, principally from Vietnam, Thailand, India, Pakistan, China and the United States.
Dear reader, if the above is a picture of a nation battling rice shortages, read the story below, filed online by credible news sources on November 16, 2019:
“Rice farmers operating in the Fumbisi Rice Valleys in the Builsa South District of the Upper East Region are asking the government to get them a ready market for their produce.”
The farmers say their produce is getting rotten on the farms due to a lack of a ready market.
On the back of this appeal by the Fumbisi farmers, the Chief Executive Officer of Citi FM/TV, Samuel Attah-Mensah, declared himself a campaigner for the consumption of locally-produced rice in the country and toured rice plantations in the Northern Region.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show upon his return, he said had seen enough to be convinced that it was possible to reduce rice imports by at least 50 per cent “in the next two years”.
For Ghanaians who still remember, the Akufo-Addo government announced earlier that year (2019) that “Ghana is to become self-sufficient in rice production by the year 2025”. He was counting on the success of his government’s flagship ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’ programme.
As you read this article, we are three months into the promised year.
Again in 2019, Odiasempa Antwi Obugyei II, a rice seedling producer for the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), forecasted that Ghana could stop rice importation “in the next five years”
Speaking with the Ghana News Agency at his rice seedling production site at Ejura in the Ashanti Region after a tour by an AGRA Team, he said the AGRA project was expected to produce 1,700 metric tons of high-quality rice every year.
With that performance, he vowed, there would not be the need for the country to import rice again in the next few years.
In December 2021, the then Minister for Trade and Industry, Mr Allan Kyerematen, appearing before Parliament to respond to a question on imported foods, disclosed that Ghana spent an estimated GH¢6.87 billion on the importation of rice from 2017 to 2020.
Replying to a question of whether the government had lifted a ban on small rice importers, Mr Kyerematen said rice was a staple food in Ghana and “as such, one has to maintain a delicate balance between the quantity of rice produced locally and what is imported to ensure that there are no serious shortages.”
In Ghana, most cultivars require between 105 and 180 days from sowing to harvest.
So, what is our problem with rice in this country?
Seeds
“Experts” lay the blame on less improved seeds, inadequate fertiliser, low mechanisation and reliance on rainfall by the majority of rice farmers. The potential yield is reported to be above six metric tonnes per hectare (Mt/Ha), but the actual national average remains at 3.2 Mt/Ha.
Over the years, several rice varieties have been developed by the Savannah Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and released with facilitation from the National Variety Release and Registration Committee.
In 2023, the Jospong Group signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the government of Ghana to bring “the latest and best rice technologies to Ghana”.
The collaboration, according to Dr Joseph Siaw Agyepong, Chairman of the Jospong Group, was “to ensure Ghana has access to the latest scientific advancements and innovations.”
Dr Abdelbagi Ismail, IRRI-Africa Director, said “The agreement and the tripartite link is expected to be a model for other countries in Africa to show how it can accelerate research and delivery of high-quality rice, and develop effective rice value chains for national and regional food and nutrition security”.
That same year (2023), the Asian African Consortium, a subsidiary of the Jospong Group, entered into partnership with major rice industry players in Thailand and Ghana to develop an integrated rice farming project.
The goal was to boost the economy through import substitution.
It is on record that Ghana spends over ¢6.8 billion (equivalent to $ 560 million at current market rates) importing rice, a grain that can be produced locally.
Dear reader, I could go on and on.
The point of the issue is: what else hasn’t Ghana done since independence?
How many more millions of dollars and euros should Ghana push into rice production?
Mr Kwaw Ansah, the filmmaker, remembers his late father’s translation of a Fante statement, “How was it boiled that it came out raw?” (Wonoa no den na wammben?)
In short, what is wrong with us?
The writer is the Executive Director,
Centre for Communication and Culture.
E-mail: ashonenimil@gmail.com
0208 178 680/0544 663 737