200,000 Metric Tonnes Of Local Rice Unsold – Peasant Farmers

 

President of the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana, Charles Nyaaba, has expressed worry over tonnes of unsold rice in the northern regions of the country

Speaking on a local radio show he said rice farmers are currently burdened with about 200,000 metric tonnes of unsold rice.

Mr. Nyaaba explained that many farmers have not been able to sell the rice they stored in their warehouse since 2024 adding that this year’s harvest season is expected to worsen the situation if both paddy and milled rice remains unsold across the northern regions.

He said, “For those that I know of, we are talking not less than 200,000 metric tonnes of rice unsold”.

He further appealed to the government to urgently release funds to the national food buffer stock company to purchase the surplus produce as earlier promised.

“Our appeal is simple this time around we are not asking the government to subsidise fertiliser. Right now, it is about life and death for farmers, so we want the government to urgently, especially through the Minister of Finance, release money to the National Buffer Stock Company,” he said.

He stressed that the National Food Buffer Stock Company should deal directly with the rice farmers and rice millers and not middle men.

He used the opportunity to also call for a temporary ban on rice importation and called for a stronger security measure along the country’s borders to curb the smuggling of foreign rice into the country.

 

By Florence Asamoah Adom

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