CSIR out to improve food sufficiency

Monday February 2 2009 page 3
As part of measures aimed at making Ghana achieve some level of food sufficiency and improve access to seed, fertiliser and training on the best cultural practices in rice production, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) yesterday began a workshop on rice production in the country.
The Director-General of CSIR, Dr A.B. Salifu, said the development of different varieties of various staples such as maize, rice, sorghum, groundnuts, soya beans, yam, and plantain had been from the efforts of researchers of CSIR and that those developed crops met specific requirements of industry in brewery, food processing and exports.
Dr Salifu asserted that rice was almost a staple food in Ghana but the local production levels still left a demand-supply gap that was being filled through importation.
According to him, several efforts had been made in the past to boost production yet little level had been achieved in terms of the quality and quantity of rice production.
He indicated that local rice farmers produced 30 per cent of the country’s requirement and that the remaining two thirds, worth $500 million, was imported.
The Director-General said the figure was alarming when it was juxtaposed against the situation in 1999-2000 when the rice import bill was $100 million.
“Barely a week ago, a private company, Finatrade, reported that they have contracted a number of local farms to supply 4,000 tonnes of locally produced rice as part of strategy to promote the commercialisation and consumption of locally produced rice.
“The Ghana Rice Inter-Professional Body (GRIB) has also proposed the setting up of a Rice Development Fund to provide credit for rice farmers in order to resuscitate what has been described as an ailing rice industry,” he said.
Dr Salifu was optimistic that the choice of implementing partners — the CSIR-Savanna Agriculture Research Institute (SARI), the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) — was strategic because the organisations were truly on the ground in the catchment area that the project would be implemented.
He noted that SARI’s involvement in similar projects and establishments in some parts of the Northern Region and its direct relationship with the rice farmers and input dealers would create a harmonious working relationship that could mitigate the numerous rice production problems of multiple and often mixed production varieties, inadequate fertiliser supply, poor milling facilities and low farmer extension services coupled with high dependence on rainfall.
A representative from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Mr Richard Twumasi-Ankrah, said the ministry attached great importance to rice as a staple food in view of the steady increase in demand and its growing importance in Ghanaian dishes.
He said Ghana’s inability to produce rice to self-sufficiency levels was indicative of the presence of major constraints in the industry, adding that currently the country’s self-sufficiency level was at about 36 per cent, and as a result large quantities of rice were imported to meet demands at huge expenses in terms of hard currency.
Mr Twumasi-Ankrah said the ministry was currently in league with a number of development partners trying to tackle the vision of the project at all levels of the industry.
He expressed concern about the low yields in the production of rice and uneven quality and impurities characteristic of local rice as some of the main challenges facing local rice production and said there was the need to make producers responsive to the requirements of the consumer.
He appealed to all partners within the implementation framework of the initiative to put in the needed effort to successfully achieve the objectives of the initiative.