The Rice Sector Support Project will save the country about 200 million dollars annually from the huge rice import bill it incurs every year, Vice President John Mahama, has said.
He said the project was one of several strategies government was embarking upon to revamp local rice production to meet the country�s domestic rice requirements.
Vice-President Mahama was speaking at separate courtesy calls on the regent of Gulkpegu, Naa Ziblim Abdulai, Dakpema of Tamale, Naa Mohammed Alhassan Dawuni II and Chief Abu Alhassan of Lamashegu, as part of his two-day duty tour of the Northern Region.
The project, being initiated by the government with a 12.5 million euro credit facility from Agence Francaise de Development (AFD), aims at developing lowland rice production in the Northern, Upper East, Upper West and Volta Regions over a five year period.
Under it, 6,000 hectares of lowland areas will be developed with water control infrastructure and technical support o 2500 family farms representing 15,000 people. The project will also finance some research activities on rice production. Vice-President Mahama noted that the consumption of rice, the second most important cereal crop next maize, had increased sharply of late, with total annual consumption amounting nearly 500,000 metric tons.
�Unfortunately, statistics indicate that over the last several years, production fell to just about 10 per cent of national demand. Consequently, our economy largely depends on imported rice to make up for the deficit,� he said. Expressing the government�s determination to bridging the yawning gap between rice consumption and production in the country, Mr Mahama said it had subsidised the cost of fertilizers, agro-chemicals and supplied improved varies to farmers.
He told the chiefs that the perennial shortage of combine harvesters for rice farmers would soon be a thing of the past as all the agricultural mechanization centres in the rice growing areas would have at least one combine harvester.
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