By Lawrence Odoom
Vice President Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang has made a compelling case for urgent investment in rice production, framing it as a strategic economic asset for West Africa in the bid to curtail crippling food import dependence and fortify regional food security.
Addressing stakeholders at the West Africa Rice Investment Roundtable in Accra on Tuesday, June 2, she asserted that scaling up rice cultivation and repositioning it as a commercially driven enterprise is imperative to meeting surging demand and alleviating the region’s staggering import burden.
According to her, bolstering domestic rice production will not only enhance food security but also generate employment and diminish the region’s reliance on external imports.
“Despite our economic potential, Africa still spends more than $50 billion annually on food imports, with rice accounting for a significant share of that import bill. Rice has become one of the most consumed staple foods across West Africa. With demand rising rapidly, West Africa alone imports millions of tonnes of rice every year.
“The challenge before us is not just about growing more rice, but also about mobilising the scale of capital required to transform agriculture from a subsistence sector into commercial production, and from fragmented production into integrated value chains. West Africa must therefore see rice as a strategic economic asset,” she stated.