Kumasi: A project has been launched to boost rice production and enhance improvement in the crop's value chain in Ghana's middle-belt ecological zone.
According to Ghana News Agency, the 'Enhancing the Competitiveness of Rice Production, Processing and Marketing in Ghana' project is an initiative of a consortium comprising the John A. Kuffuor Foundation, Hopeline Institute, and FarmWallet Limited. The three-year project, running from 2025 to 2027, seeks to address key constraints in the rice value chain, including low crop yields, poor farming practices, limited adoption of productivity-enhancing technologies, and poor access to essential services such as finance, mechanization, and quality inputs.
With funding from the Alliance for Green Revolution for Africa (AGRA), the project aims to increase average yields from the national average of 2.5 - 3.5 metric tonnes per hectare to 4.5 metric tonnes per hectare. It also intends to improve business skills for small and medium enterprises and increase access to finance for all value chain actors. The project will enhance market channels for rice output and strengthen linkages between producers and buyers, while increasing consumer awareness and preference for local rice, leading to higher demand.
The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) indicated that local rice production in Ghana currently meets only 47 percent of the national demand of 1.5 million metric tonnes. This significant deficit has led to heavy reliance on imports, hindering the country's economic and food security. The gap in Ghana's rice competitiveness spans from low local production, poor access to services such as finance and mechanization, limited access to structured markets, quality and costs, to policy and climate challenges.
Despite investments in policy development, effective implementation remains a barrier, and the industry is also highly vulnerable to climate-related shocks like severe droughts. The implementing partners will perform specific tasks, with the John Agyekum Kufuor Foundation (JAKF) focusing on policy, advocacy, and governance. The Foundation's activities will include improving policy implementation, stakeholder engagement, and coordinating national and regional rice development strategies.
The Hopeline Institute will serve as the value chain facilitator for farmer mobilization, training, and technology adoption, while FarmWallet Limited will act as the Fintech and IT applications partner, building technical financial linkages. Mr. Godfrey Appiah Acheampong, the Acting Ashanti Regional Director of Agriculture, at the inception meeting of the project, pledged the Department's readiness to support the project's full implementation. He stated that MoFA would do so by training the farmers through demonstration farms and marketing techniques, among others, and urged rice farmers to own the project and expand their production capacities. The meeting brought together rice farmers and processors, agricultural and crop officers from selected districts in the Ashanti Region.
