Rice has been one of the staple foods in Ghana for so long.
In many homes, there are various varieties of meals from this cereal which makes it the mainstay.
Recently, farmers in the production of several food crops in the country complained about their inability to produce to capacity.
They have complained among other things land tenure system, lack of loans, inaccessible road network to farm lands to cart their produce to market centers, lack of farm inputs and lack of regular and adequate fertilizer supply.
These challenges clearly have its serious effects on food security in Ghana.
That is why the Ghanaian Publisher is enthused by the news that efforts are underway to make the Central Region a rice-producing hub.
This, according to the Central Regional Minister, Mrs. Justina Marigold Assan, will enable the region to unleash its full agricultural potential in rice production.
In pursuit of that, she revealed that a strong collaboration is being forged with Korea International Corporation, an expert organization in upscaling rice production.
Mrs. Marigold Assan was speaking to the media on Thursday in Cape Coast during the Minister of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), Dr. Owusu Akoto Afriyie’s tour in the region.
According to her, though her region was currently eighth on the log of rice-producing regions, Central Region was poised to move to the 7th position. She noted that talks were already ongoing in that regard.
She gave the assurance that with the measures put in place one can only hope for the best from the region.
She added that the Central Region will institute a local market termed, “Farmers’ Market where foodstuffs produced in the region would be assembled and sold to customers.
Furthermore, Mrs. Marigold Assan indicated that there were ongoing efforts to ensure that Ghanaians eat fresh foods from the farms while guaranteeing the benefits of their nutritional value.
To us, this idea sounds very nice and rounded but it should be well thought through as a giant step towards promoting an all year round supply of rice.
By this, Ghanaians will be motivated to buy locally produced rice, cutting down the :importation of thawa foods which is directly competing with our local rice.
As we applaud the government for this vision, the paper opines that the government must scale up its assistance to these farmers in order to make this a reality.
As the impact of the economic crisis begins to bite so hard, the necessary assistance to propel tour farmers to provide cheaper and affordable crops for the citizenry is non negotiable.
