President Akufo-Addo instructs state institutions to buy local food produce

By Godwill Arthur-Mensah, GNA 

Accra, Dec. 13, GNA - President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has directed all state institutions to purchase Ghanaian rice and food produce from January 1, next year, to boost the country’s agriculture industry.

“We should all eat Ghanaian rice, each one of us in our homes should make a conscious effort to tell our wives and cousins and whoever it is to buy Ghana rice,” President Akufo-Addo said this at the media encounter at the Jubilee House, in Accra, on Friday, amidst applause from the audience.

The media encounter, the fourth in the series since assuming office, enabled the President to account for his three-year stewardship to Ghanaians and solicit feedback to improve the various flagship policies and programmes implemented so far.

At the 35th Farmers’ Day celebration in Ho in the Volta Region on December 6, President Akufo-Addo made a profound statement saying, “Rebecca, my beautiful wife, our First Lady, insists that we eat local rice at home and that is what we eat. I encourage all Ghanaians to emulate us” 

The President also said that the country’s annual food import bill of over two billion dollars was unacceptable and outlined various interventions his government was implementing to change the narrative, including; the adoption of smart technologies and supply of subsidised farm inputs to farmers under the Planting for Food and Jobs programme.

There has been a vigorous campaign by the media and civil society organisations across the country promoting the patronage of local rice reduce the over one-billion-dollar import bill for rice annually.

Ghana’s local rice production stands at 460,000 metric tonnes, with 640,000 metric tonnes imported annually.

The National Food Buffer Stock has also been urged to intensify the issuance of licences and patronage of both paddy and milled rice from Ghanaian rice farmers to encourage them to produce more.

GNA

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