A plant built to cut Ghana’s rice import bill is overgrown with weeds because local farmers cannot grow enough paddy to feed it.
A rice processing plant built at Nkrankwanta in the Dormaa West District of the Bono Region is lying unused, four years after it was set up with a GH¢7.243 million investment.
The facility opened in July 2021 and was meant to give rice farmers in the district a guaranteed buyer, raise Ghana's milling capacity and cut the amount of rice the country imports each year. Today, weeds have taken over parts of the compound.
Adom Online reports that the plant is not operating because there is simply not enough locally grown paddy \u2014 unmilled rice \u2014 to keep it running.
What the machines can do
The plant was fitted with modern equipment able to process between 1.5 and 2.8 tonnes of rice an hour. It can also mill and sort rice to a standard that matches imported brands, which is often the main complaint consumers raise about locally produced rice.
Why farmers cannot supply it
Farmers in the district say the problem is not willingness but money and equipment. They point to limited access to farm inputs, machinery and capital.
Many finance their farms with loans from private individuals rather than banks. Some of these lenders take a share of the harvested rice as repayment at the end of the season. That leaves farmers with little cash to start the next planting cycle, and no room to expand their fields.
They are asking government for modern farming machinery, improved seeds, nets, agrochemicals and financial support.
The MP's position
The Member of Parliament for the area, Vincent Oppong Asamoah, has called on government to put more money into local rice production so the mill has raw material to work with.
He argues the plant could supply locally processed rice to institutions in the Bono Region, particularly Senior High Schools, which buy food in bulk and would give the mill a steady market.
Government response
Dr Peter Boamah Otokunor, Director of Presidential Initiatives in Agriculture and Agribusiness at the Office of the President, says the D\u0254 Bi Di farming initiative is being extended to rice farmers in the district.
Under the programme, farmer groups are to receive improved seeds, machinery and other inputs to lift paddy output and feed the plant.
Dr Otokunor says the initiative is aimed especially at smallholder farmers who cannot get bank credit because they have no collateral, and that it offers support at different stages of rice production.
What happens next
For Dormaa West farmers, the test is whether that support actually arrives and translates into more paddy. They say reviving the mill would stop a multi-million cedi asset from wasting away, give them a reliable buyer, and add to national efforts to depend less on imported rice \u2014 a point that matters to Ghanaians abroad who watch the country's food import bill closely.
