Vice Chair of the Competitive Africa Rice Platform, Dr. Ama Aning Oppong-Duah, has raised concern over the growing crisis facing Ghana’s rice farmers, who are still holding large quantities of unsold produce from last year while a new harvest season is already underway.
Dr. Oppong-Duah further explained that farmers have been left in a precarious position as the market continues to favor imported rice over locally grown varieties.
“We still have unsold rice from last year, and more is coming in,” she lamented, noting that the situation threatens to discourage farmers and destabilize the local rice industry.
According to her, the problem dates back to last year when farmers cultivated their fields during a period of high exchange rates. They purchased fertilizer, seed, and other inputs at elevated costs when the dollar was strong. However, after harvesting, the cedi began to appreciate, leading to a drop in the prices of imported rice.
“So when that happened, it became cheaper for people to bring in foreign rice. Farmers had already produced at a higher cost, but imported rice suddenly became more affordable,” Dr. Oppong-Duah explained.
She added that the situation was compounded by the temporary inactivity of the National Buffer Stock Company, which was undergoing structural changes at the time. “They weren’t buying as they were supposed to, so there was quite a murky situation,” she noted.
As a result, farmers were left with thousands of bags of rice that consumers ignored in favor of cheaper imported brands. “The people, of course, were buying the cheaper imports that had come into town,” she said.
Despite these setbacks, farmers went ahead to cultivate again this year, encouraged by a new government directive and improved access to inputs such as seeds and fertilizer. But the same challenge has resurfaced, with unsold rice still sitting in warehouses across major rice-growing regions.
“We are now in the harvesting season,” Dr. Oppong-Duah emphasized. “And there’s still rice from last year that we haven’t been able to sell, yet more rice is coming in.”
She called for urgent government intervention to protect the livelihoods of local farmers, promote domestic rice consumption, and strengthen Ghana’s food security strategy.
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