Tamale, Dec.7, GNA - Vice President John Dramani Mahama, on Monday launched 17.3 million Euro Rice Sector Support Project (RSSP), aimed at boosting lowland rice production in the country.

He said the Project was one of several strategies government was embarking upon to revamp the local rice industry to meet domestic food demand.

Vice President Mahama said apart from maize, rice was the second most important cereal crop in the country and noted that its consumption had increased with total annual consumption reaching 500,000 metric tons. He said statistics indicated that over the last several years, production of the crop had fallen to about 10 per cent of national demand, making the country heavily depended on imported rice.

The Vice President said more that 600 million US dollars was being used to import rice, meat, fish and other products into the country annually adding that this substantial foreign exchange could have been conserved for more urgent national needs.

He said that government was determined to reverse the trend within the next few years by producing food not only for local consumption but for export.

Vice President Mahama appealed to the AFD to allow the government integrate the RSSP into the block farming programme

He said government intended to identify rice lands in the districts where the Project would be implemented and bring farmers in those areas together to make enhance mechanisation and extension services. The Agence Francaise de Develppement (AFD) is partly funding the Project with 13.8 million Euros

Mr. Francis Hurtut, French Ambassador to Ghana in a speech read for him by Mr. Benoit Lebeurre, Resident Manager of the AFD, said the Project covered a period of five years and was aimed at developing rice production in the Northern, Upper East, Upper West and the Volta Regions. He said under the Project, 6,000 hectares of lowland would be develo= ped with water control infrastructure and technical support to farmers. Mr. Hurtut said the Project would also focus on family farms, which were playing a major role towards food security and conservation of natural resources.

He said about 2,500 farms would be established and more that 15,000 people would benefit from the Project.

Mr. Stephen Sumani Nayina, Northern Regional Minister in a speech read on his behalf, called on the youth in the Upper West, Upper East and Northern Regions to take advantage of the project and go into farming rather than migrating to the South in search of non-existent jobs. He appealed to the chiefs and elders to provide land to enable the project achieve its objective.