The Board of Directors of the African Development Fund (ADF) has approved a loan of about 19 million dollars (15 million units of account) to finance Ghana's inland valleys rice development project.

A statement from the Abidjan-based African Development Bank received in Accra on Wednesday said the objective of the project is to enhance food security and reduce rice imports.

"It specifically seeks to increase the incomes of smallholder rice producers of the Ashanti, Brong Ahafo, Central, Eastern and Western regions by increasing the production of good quality local rice," the statement said.

Some 9,000 farmers and 150 people involved in rice milling and trading will benefit from the project.

The project is also expected to increase paddy rice production by 60,000 metric tons over five years.

The ADF, the Ghana government and the beneficiaries will jointly finance the project. The ADF loan will be used to finance the entire foreign exchange cost and 76 per cent of the local currency expenditure of the project whose total cost is estimated at about 21.64 million dollars.

The project will involve the development of 5,500 hectares of rice, improvement of 280 kilometres of access roads and field tracks and provision of about 6.17 million dollars credit for farm inputs and equipment.

It will also support the training of beneficiaries and technical staff, and the development of rice agronomic packages and technologies.

Since 1973 when the African Development Bank Group started operations, it has committed a total of 741 million dollars to 47 operations. Of this, about 515 million dollars has been disbursed.