Agric Minister Assures His Outfit Is Putting In Place Pragmatic Steps To Boost Rice Production

Minister for Food and Agriculture, Clement Kofi Humado says his outfit is putting in place pragmatic steps to boost rice production in the country.

He stated that the Ministry has held meeting with various rice producers to discuss measures to revitalize the production of rice locally.

He noted that the importation of rice is gradually having depression effect on domestic rice businesses and so, the Ministry has adopted a plan to increase “local production gradually and trying to see whether we can reduce importation also gradually. We are introducing varieties that taste like the imported varieties so that when these are produced locally, our consumers would also have some affinity to that kind of rice produced here.”

He explained further that importation of rice, especially via unauthorized routes, affects the country’s revenues.

Speaking to Radio Gold, the Food and Agriculture Minister was of a strong view that such attitude should be curtailed because “it affects our revenue generation. As a country, the amount that we should have gotten from the tariffs or duty will be lower. Also, we will lose information, that is, we will not be able to know exactly how much volume of rice comes into this country for planning purposes. So, I think it’s something which is very very disturbing, not only to the Ministry but it should also be disturbing to the revenue generation authorities.”

The Ministry of Food and Agriculture, he said, is “trying to revamp rice production…And we believe that by the end of this year, we should be targeting 60% of the total requirement for Ghana.”

Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana