As the conversation on how Ghana can limit its importation of rice and become a net exporter of the food item, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) is proposing that mobilizing youth groups to enter rice farming will be very useful.
For years, Ghana has spent hundreds of millions of dollars importing rice despite numerous studies confirming that the grain could easily be grown on our own fertile soils.
The IFS confirms that the country has the potential to locally produce the staple to feed itself and even export the surplus. Yet, as demand rises and the import bill balloons, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) believes that part of the solution to the problem is Ghana’s vibrant youth.
In a new policy document on the subject matter of rice importation, the IFS is calling for a practical move to address the menace. The institute says there is an opportunity for the country to mobilize young people into rice farming, not as lone farmers, but as organized teams equipped with capital and technical support.
The think tank says the approach could change everything. The institute justifies that youth teams in rice farming, if well-supported, can drive a revolution in local production and help Ghana become a net exporter of rice.
The think tank, therefore, calls on the government to create small, youth-led teams, give them seed money as start-up capital on credit, and free the process from politics.
“To be able to massively expand rice production in Ghana and turn Ghana into a major net exporter of rice as recommended above, the government of Ghana should also massively mobilize the youth into rice farming. As IFS, this should be done “on a team basis by providing them with seed money (capital) on credit with no regard to political party affiliation,” IFS indicated.
IFS is imagining a situation where thousands of energetic young Ghanaians across the Volta, Northern, and Bono East regions work in groups, ploughing, planting, harvesting, and processing rice with a shared purpose.
With access to land, credit, and modern farming tools, these teams could transform rural economies, create jobs, feed the nation, and export the excess.
The potential impact goes beyond food security. Ghana currently imports over half of the rice it consumes, draining foreign exchange and exposing the cedi to pressure. But with local youth-led rice farms, the IFS believes the country can dramatically change the narrative.
The jobs created would keep young people productively engaged, while every bag of Ghana-grown rice sold locally would mean fewer dollars leaving the economy.
Agricultural experts have long argued that Ghana’s fertile valleys and river basins can produce more than enough rice to feed the nation and even export to neighboring countries. What’s been missing is coordination, financing, and genuine youth involvement.
With this proposal from IFS, it is expected that the government can change the story through this initiative.
