Ghana’s decades-long struggle to reduce rice importation continues despite multiple government interventions dating back to the 1960s, a new report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies has revealed.
The report, titled “Increasing Importation of Rice in Ghana: Can the Country Transform Its Fortunes in the Rice Sector,” finds that successive governments’ strategies to curb rice imports have failed to address the fundamental challenges facing the local rice industry.
Dr Said Boakye, Senior Research Fellow, IFS, indicated that although Ghana has implemented numerous agricultural programmes — from Nkrumah’s Seven-Year Development Plan to Kufuor’s National Rice Development Strategy (2008–2018) — the country remains heavily dependent on imported rice to meet growing domestic demand.
Data from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) indicate that annual per-capita rice consumption has jumped from 12.4 kilograms in 1980 to 61.05 kilograms by 2022, driven largely by rising urban demand. However, domestic production has not kept pace, forcing the country to rely on imports to fill the gap.
Historically, governments have recognized the problem. As far back as the 1960s, the Nkrumah administration warned that rice imports had become “a major factor in the worsening balance of payments situation.” The Supreme Military Council (SMC) government in the 1970s also lamented that, despite achieving an average annual growth rate of 9.8% in rice production between 1970 and 1974, rice imports still averaged 12 million tonnes annually to meet growing demand.
By 2006, Ghana’s rice self-sufficiency ratio had dropped from 38% in 1999 to just 24%, according to the National Rice Development Strategy under President John Agyekum Kufuor.
The new report concludes that government approaches have largely been reactive, fragmented, and poorly targeted. Before 2008, Ghana had no dedicated national plan for rice production, relying instead on scattered donor-funded agricultural projects. Even after 2008, strategic implementation and coordination have remained weak.
Among the key challenges identified were:
• Low productivity;
• Scarcity of irrigation facilities, leaving farmers dependent on rainfall;
• Poor seed quality and limited fertilizer use compared with leading producers like Thailand and Vietnam;
• Limited access to credit and markets for local farmers; and
• Traditional land tenure systems, which hinder large-scale commercial rice farming.
The study further compares Ghana’s rice sector with those of Thailand and Vietnam—currently the world’s second and third-largest rice exporters. It notes that while both Asian countries invested heavily in irrigation, seed research, and farmer support systems from the 1960s, Ghana’s policies lacked sustained commitment and strategic focus.
Researchers behind the study are calling for a complete policy reset focused on productivity, irrigation, seed improvement, and value chain development to reduce import dependency.
“The failure of Ghana’s rice policy over the decades reflects a fundamental disconnect between government strategy and the realities of production,” the report concludes. “Without addressing these structural issues, the country will continue to import rice at alarming levels.”
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