With an estimated one million metric tonnes of unsold paddy rice on the local market, valued at GH¢5 billion, the Association of Ghana Rice Producers and Processors has renewed calls on government to enforce a six-month import ban on foreign varieties, in order to enable the exhaustion of existing glut in the local market.

The proposed six-month ban is intended as a stopgap measure to clear existing stocks before resuming any import activity.

Producers also want the introduction of a transparent import quota system to ensure imports only cover supply gaps rather than compete directly with local output.

Annual consumption of rice in Ghana is nearing two million metric tonnes, but heavily controlled by imported varieties on the local market.

This situation has led major rice millers to suspend operations as the domestic market is being overwhelmed by the influx of cheap, smuggled rice into the country.

“Over one million farmers are overwhelmed with huge losses with the situation posing high threats and sustainability of the local rice industry”, an executive member of the Rice Producers and Processors Association, Dr. Terence Adda-Balinia stated.

Producers and processors are appealing to government to prioritise guaranteed markets for local rice, arguing that significant investments in the sector risk being undermined without stronger policy support.

To support farmers and processors, the association is proposing the introduction of annual minimum farmgate prices and the creation of a special financing facility to provide low-interest credit to rice millers, particularly during harvest periods.

According to the group, production investment without guaranteed market access will continue to yield diminishing returns.

High production costs, weak distribution infrastructure, and persistently low farmgate prices remain the core barriers to local competitiveness. A local producer has attributed the high cost of local rice to expensive farm inputs such as fertiliser, land preparation, land rental and agrochemicals.

He wants government to subsidise fertiliser and agrochemicals to help reduce production costs. Others want the government to support farmers with rice milling machines, subsidised fertiliser and ploughing equipment to boost production and attract the youth into rice farming.