Minister for Food and Agriculture Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto has projected that the country would have reached self-sufficiency with about 29,000 metric tonnes as surplus to spare by 2023.

He said rice production had jumped from 138,000 metric tonnes in 2016 to 665,000 in 2019.

He He attributed this achievement to the introduction of the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) initiative introduced by the Akufo-Addo administration.

The PFJ programme is a Government of Ghana (GoG) designed and implemented programme aiming to promote growth in food production and create jobs across the country.

The programme is structured around 5 Pillars. These include: ¬ Seed; ¬ Fertilizer; ¬ Extension Services; ¬ Marketing; and ¬ e-Fertilizer & Monitoring

Dr Akoto Afryie said : “With all these, within two years, the country would be self-sufficient in rice production so there will be no need for us to spend the millions of dollars a year to import rice,” he said.

The minister disclosed this during an interaction with farmer groups and value chain operators in the agricultural sector in the Bono, Bono East and the Ashanti regions, last week.

He was accompanied by one of his deputies, Mr George Oduro, and sectional directors of the ministry