Stakeholders in the rice value chain have appealed to the government to consider investing more in research to improve the cultivation and production of rice and reduce its imports.
They believe the country’s quest to achieve self-sufficiency in rice production has hinged on the commitments of key actors in providing adequate funds for research into the development of high-yielding varieties and innovative technological equipment for processing the grains.
The stakeholders, made up of rice farmers, millers, seed growers, intermediaries, and consumers, made the appeal when they participated in the selection of new rice varieties from a demonstration farm at Sokwai, in the Atwima Nwabiagya South Municipality of the Ashanti Region.
The 12 new varieties have been developed and released by the Crops Research Institute (CRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, CSIR.
The selection exercise is to help identify the preferred varieties by farmers and consumers to enable the researchers to breed and multiply those seeds for planting.
A rice farmer at Sokwai, Joseph Panada, commended the breeders at CRI for releasing new rice varieties every year, which has been beneficial to farmers and others in the industry.
Assistant Breeder, CSIR-CRI, Kirpal Agyemang Ofosu, told the Ghana News Agency researchers would work hard to release preferred varieties to farmers and appealed to the government to invest more in rice research to improve production.
He lauded the Korea Programme on International Agriculture for funding the research project.
Source: GNA