THE decision of the World Food Programme (WFP) to purchase 1,433 metric tonnes of local rice worth US$780,000 must provide big relief for farmers, especially rice growers who find it difficult to market their produce.
Ghanaian consumers are reluctant to purchase local rice because they claim it is of poor quality. As a result of the exotic taste that many Ghanaians have developed, we tend to look down on our own as inferior, in spite of the fact that what is produced locally is highly nutritious.
The high import bill for rice has come about because of the taste for the so-called “perfumed rice” in parts of the country, although indications are that this “perfumed rice” is refined and of no nutritional value.
Ironically, most developed countries from where these imports come from are rejecting “perfumed rice” in favour of organic foods.
In the 1970s when Ghana introduced the Operation Feed Yourself (OFY) programme, it introduced the necessary incentives to motivate farmers and entrepreneurs to go into large-scale production of staples such as maize, rice, sorghum and millet.
At a certain stage during the OFY programme, Ghana was a net exporter of maize and rice to some neighbouring countries. During that period, a number of large-scale farmers emerged on the scene, particularly in the Northern Region where large tracts of land were ploughed for maize and rice cultivation.
For some reasons, interest in agriculture waned and today Ghana is a net importer of staples such as rice and maize. Plantain and tomatoes are also imported from neighbouring countries, although we have the potential to grow our own food to feed ourselves.
These factors include the lack of access to credit, inputs, the unfriendly land tenure system and the lack of market.
It is strange that although we have to rely on foreign imports to feed our people during certain periods of the year, when we experience a glut we are unable to purchase the excess for storage and use during the lean season.
Even as we encourage our farmers to produce in order to break away from our over-dependence on foreign imports, we are unable to provide ready markets for them.
It is refreshing, however, that the government recently established the National Buffer Stock Company to purchase food crops from farmers as a way of providing food growers with a ready market.
Agriculture can only be attractive to the youth if there is a ready market for locally produced food crops.
The Daily Graphic, therefore, calls on all stakeholders to speed up action on encouraging the people to “eat what we grow and grow what we eat” so that we can end our dependence on food handouts.
We find it difficult to endorse any policy that will make it mandatory for all public institutions to purchase food produced locally because sometimes the capacity may not be there to supply the needs of our institutions, but as the Chinese say, “ A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step”.
Indeed, the school feeding programme was conceived not only to provide one hot meal a day for all schoolchildren but also provide a ready market for our farmers.
We commend the WFP for its decision to buy rice locally which it will distribute to the school feeding programme in the three Northern Regions.
The Daily Graphic thinks the government should devise strategies to encourage more people to take to agriculture. The success of any agricultural programme, such as the Youth in Agriculture programme, depends on the availability of a ready market so that farmers are not exposed to unhealthy competition on the market.
Let us wean ourselves from food handouts, since we pride ourselves as a leading agricultural country in the sub-region.
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