The Ministry of Food and Agriculture has launched the Regional Resilient Rice Value Chains Development Project in West Africa (REWARD) in Ghana with an aim of becoming a rice sufficient country by 2028.

The $18.8 million African Development Bank (AfDB) project targets eliminating Ghana's heavy reliance on foreign rice imports by supporting 20,000 small-holder farmers with high quality seeds and modern machinery including rotary tillers, seed drills, mini crawler combine harvesters, and rice transplanters to increase farmer yields from 3.5 tonnes to 4.5 tonnes per hectare.

It will be implemented in the Tamale Metro, Savelegu Municipal and Mion District in the Northern Region, Mamprugu-Moagduri in the North-East Region, West Gonja District in the Savannah Region and the Wa Municipal and Nandom District in the Upper West Region.

Speaking at the launch in Tamale on Monday, Minister of Agriculture, Eric Opoku said Ghana currently produces about 55 percent of its rice needs, spending about $500million annually to import rice to augment local production.

He said the five year REWARD-Ghana project aims at reducing the country’s dependence on imported rice by expanding domestic production of local rice.

“Our ambition is to progressively reduce this import dependence by expanding domestic production, improving productivity, strengthening processing capacity and ensuring that locally produced rice can compete favorably in quality, availability and price” the Minister said.

He said while government was putting in place measures to increase local production to ensure rice sufficiency, there is also the need for Ghanaians to consume more local rice.

“The Ghanaian people must understand that patronizing what is produced in Ghana is an investment in job creation. When you buy rice and others produced here in Ghana, you’re creating opportunities from producers, processors [and] transporters to get more space and employ more people” the Minister urged.

The Northern Regional Minister, Ali Adolf Nburidiba welcomed the REWRD project, noting that it will help improve the agriculture value chain, noting that “When the value chain works well, the benefits can reach beyond the farms.”