Minister for Agriculture Kwasi Ahwoi on Friday denied categorically that Ghanaians are facing imminent food insecurity, stressing that Ghana is close to food security due to significant increases in food production and storage over the past 18 months.

Food and Beverage Association of Ghana (FBAG) declared at a press conference here on Thursday that Ghanaians were faced with imminent food insecurity since the government had re-imposed import tariffs on food in 2009, making imported food items expensive.

"High import levies on food produce will threaten the livelihoods of Ghanaians who risk being rendered jobless if the unbearable situation does not seize since the situation will subsequently kill local business," said FBAG president John Awuni.

Described the assertion as only crying wolf, Ahwoi explained that after removing tariffs on imported food at the peak of the global food crisis in 2008, most countries had re-imposed the tariffs after the crisis abated.

The minister told Xinhua on the sideline of the ongoing African Green Revolution Forum that Ghana has increased its rice production by 30 percent in 2009 alone and is targeting 50 percent in 2010, hence it is baseless for anybody to assert that food crisis in Ghana is imminent.

"Every tone of rice we import from India is a job we have created for Indian farmers, while here we have thrown a lot of our own farmers out of job," Ahwoi said, adding that the government's focus is to encourage local grain production and create sustainable jobs for farmers.

He wondered why rice importers would not rather provide credit to rice growers to grow more high quality rice so that there would be more locally produced rice to sell instead of complaining about the high import bill.

FAAG president John Awuni claimed that beside other goods smuggled into Ghana, the country is losing over 40 million U.S. dollars annually as a result of rice smuggled from neighboring Cote d' Ivoire alone.

However, the minister said Ghana would save more foreign exchange if local rice production is encouraged and sustained, adding that farmers who have had higher yields in 2009 were happy about the outcome and had determined to grow even more.

There is also a 10 percent increase in the production of tubers such as cassava, but what need to be done for such staples is value addition so as to prevent post-harvest lost, which has been a major topic of discussion at the ongoing forum, the minister added.