Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto last year projected that Ghana will in 2023 be self-sufficient with the production of rice.

He said this after rice production in the country jumped from 138,000 metric tonnes in 2016 to 665, 000 in 2019.

The Agric Minister noted that this increase in rice production was because the government implemented the Planting for Food and Jobs programme.

In an interaction with farmers and value-chain operators, he 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”.

Read the full story originally published on May 4, 2020 by Laudbusiness.

Minister for Food and Agriculture Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto has said rice production had jumped from 138,000 metric tonnes in 2016 to 665,000 in 2019.

He projected that by 2023, the country would have reached self-sufficiency with about 29,000 metric tonnes as surplus to spare.

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”.

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.