THE President of Bolivia, Evo Morales was reported to have introduced a new legislation in his country, which aims at ensuring food security in that country.
“Under the plan, state-owned companies will be set up to produce seeds and fertilisers,” a recent BBC report read.
It further revealed that the Bolivian government plans to invest $5billion, over a 10-year period, in providing credits to small farmers in order to bring about a food revolution to ensure that Bolivians can feed themselves for generations to come.
What a wise decision by a man who has been criticised so much by the West – a man who wants his people to move from simply being players in consumption to actors in production.
He certainly wants his country to avoid the situation in Ghana where we import several thousand tonnes of rice, although we grow rice.
As at 2009, it was estimated that local rice production accounted for only 30 per cent of rice demand and that, to make up for the shortfall, the country was importing several tonnes of rice worth $500m.
Various initiatives, such as the Rice Sector Support programme, have been implemented by the government and private sector in a bid to promote the local rice industry.
From Fievie in the Volta Region all the way to Nasia in the Northern Region, various rice farms are blossoming as a result of public private partnerships.
However, one thing still remains missing in all these efforts, which is the worry of this writer.
All the efforts being made to improve local rice production would amount to zilch if the produce is neither consumed by the Ghanaian community nor of value to the international market.
How many Ghanaians, especially those within the high and middle income groups, consume our local rice?
The farm in Fieve, for instance, expects to yield 20,000 tonnes of rice by 2012 for the Ghanaian market. Is there a Ghanaian market when it comes to local rice?
The problem is not that the rice does not meet demand, but that the little that is even produced is not in high demand.
Would there be the need for the National Food Buffer Stock Company to mop up excess rice produce if indeed our local rice production falls short of demand.
Last year, this company stored about 7000 metric tonnes of rice, as was indicated by the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Mr Kwabena Duffour in the 2011 Bugdet Statement. How can something that is in shortage get into excess.
So, if the country even increases rice production to meet 50 per cent of demand, as the Vice President, John Dramani Mahama once indicated, many Ghanaians would still be consuming imported rice.
Have we not realised that in Ghana, we import almost everything that we have the potential and advantage to produce: ranging from furniture, food to toothpicks.
We even pretend to be helping the youth by training them in vocational and technical skills and, yet, we are unwilling to purchase the items they produce.
Is that not the reason why many of our youth are studying marketing, because we have become specialists in marketing other people’s products?
What is even more troubling is the attitude of many of our leaders when it comes to patronising locally-made products. It appears they preach one thing and do the other.
They spend huge state resources launching campaigns to promote the consumption and patronage of local food and other products and, yet, go back to their offices and homes to use products exported from other countries.
Of course, it is everybody’s right to purchase whatever product he or she desires, no qualms. However, it is an obligation to lead by example when you ask your flock to act in a particular manner.
Have our leaders not realised that anytime they buy a foreign product, they put Ghanaian taxpayers’ monies in the pockets of producers from those countries.
They also deprive our local industries the cash they need to grow and, then, they reinforce the mindset that anything foreign is good.
For sometime now, I have been looking for the opportunity to ask someone in the castle whether the rice cooked for our president and other officials is the one sourced from the fields that have been tilled by our hardworking farmers.
When we receive foreign dignitaries, what type of food do we serve them? Is it fufu, tuo zafi, tuubani, dawadawa jollof and aprapransa or it is the highly-garnished fatty meals that our visitors are trying hard to relegate in their home countries, which we have adopted with so much zeal.
And do we serve them in our local bowls, like the earthenware bowl, or in imported cutlery.
What about our President’s clothing, are they sewn by our tailors or imported? The chairs and other furniture at the castle, were they contracted to a local artisan or they were procured from one of those big elite shops that retail foreign goods?
If I could get answers to these questions, I would much appreciate it.
As Bob Marley once said, “he, who feels it, knows it.” If the President and his lieutenants were to be consuming local rice, the industry would not be in its current distressful state.
Why, because the government would have made it a priority to build the country’s industrial capacity to produce rice that is of par with international quality and unique to Ghana.
After all, would the President and his dignitaries eat rice that is mixed with chaff, stones and other foreign materials?
At one point in time, the current Minister for Food and Agriculture, Mr Kwesi Ahwoi was quoted by the Daily Graphic as saying that the Agric Ministry was fashioning out a policy or programme that would compel all state institutions, including the presidency, to consume local rice.
What happened to that brilliant initiative, Mr Minister? Did your ministry mean serious business or you were, simply, trying to satisfy news-thirsty journalists.
Whatever the case, it is long over due for the nation to have a policy that makes it compulsory for all state institutions – like public schools, official government residencies and public hospitals – to consume local rice.
Even at state functions, from the district to the national level, when rice is to be served, it must be local rice.
The benefits that we would derive from such a policy are numerous. Our farmers would say goodbye to poverty as they would begin to reap the benefits of their toils.
Ghanaians would begin to consume local rice. The reason being that when government institutions purchase local rice, the producers would get more cash to improve on the packaging and quality of the rice in order to meet the eye and taste of the Ghanaian consumer.
They would have the opportunity to brand Ghana’s rice and let the world know how yummy and nutritious it is.
Many of our youth, who are on a wild goose chase for non-existing white-collar jobs and who are always on the necks of politicians to provide jobs, would move into the business of rice farming.
When we eat the food we grow, we are guaranteed of quality and safety. We would no more eat chemically-produced food that has caused many of our people to develop various types of cancer and other diseases.
Have we not monitored what is happening in Kenya, where the people have raised the red flag at what they believe is their government’s intention to import genetically modified maize, which they describe as poisonous. I hope we would never get into that situation in Ghana.
I remain hopeful that President Mills would act fast to salvage our local rice industry, promote food security and restore our national pride as a nation whose people can feed themselves.
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