The Ghana Rice Inter-Professional Body (GRIB) has bemoaned government’s lack of commitment to the rice sector.
Government has said that reducing the size of rice imports is one of its priorities that will further aid in reducing pressure on foreign exchange reserves. As one of the major items on Ghana’s import bill, rice has a market size estimated to be over US$1billion.
This according to the Executive Secretary of GRIB, Evans Sackey Teye, calls for more commitment and attention from government to be given farmers in the rice sector.
“Government’s commitment is actually not there. For example, government says it wants to reduce imports of rice but still cut down the agricultural sector’s budget allocation in the 2016 budget,” Mr. Sackey said in an interview.
“The budget also never stated the exact amount to aid the rice sector. In fact, there is nothing like that in the budget, but we keep on hearing that government is committed to the rice sector,” he added.
Government in the 2016 budget cut its 2016 expenditure on the agricultural sector by GH¢40million despite growth in the agriculture sector falling to 0.04 percent this year, when government had targetted 3.6 percent growth.
Last year government’s budgeted expenditure on the agricultural sector was GH¢395.19million while it is pegged at GH¢355.14 million in 2016, indicating a 10.1 percent decrease.
According to Mr. Sackey, his outfit has had some consultations and stakeholder meetings with government in an attempt to alert it to support the rice sector with funds; but government only makes promises without taking steps to fulfil them.
“We have had several consultations and meetings with government, but nothing has come out of them. They keep promising us but do not give support with the needed resources.
“So for us as a value chain organisation, we are making efforts on our own to build the sector. We depend on donors from outside to help us run activities that train farmers and provide them with some inputs to help the sector thrive,” he said.
Statistics show that Ghanaian rice consumption is estimated at 770,000 metric tonnes per year, with an estimated US$500million spent on imports yearly. Anecdotal evidence suggests Ghanaian urban consumers are willing to pay 113 percent premium for imported rice.
This situation has put downward pressure on smallholder rice producer incomes, as rice yields are below two metric tonnes per hectare, which is why GRIB is making the call.
It is important to note that some private organisations have taken steps to address the gap in the sector.
For example, TechnoServe Ghana has launched a project dubbed the ‘Competitive African Rice Initiative’ (CARI), which seeks to support the sector with €1.5million in a bid to improve the livelihoods of smallholder rice farmers in the country.
Another initiative was also carried out last year by the Dutch international development outfit SNV Netherland Development Organisation, which has secured a US$75million funding from the USAID’s Financing Ghanaian Agriculture Project (FinGAP) to boost the capacity of local rice producers in the three northern regions.