There is a groundswell of people advocating the consumption of locally produced rice.
I must admit that this couldn’t have come at a better time. A large chunk of rice is produced in the northern part of the country and other areas.
As nutritious as these brands are, Ghanaians appear to have developed tastes for foreign ones. The reasons are not farfetched.
However, the country spends millions if not billions of dollars to import rice from Vietnam and Thailand, and this has telling effects on the strength of our currency, the cedi.
The importation of these foreign brands also renders our rice farmers jobless since their product is not patronized by Ghanaians, and this is detrimental to the growth and development of the country.
We can all help in our own small ways to help in the consumption of locally processed and produced rice by jettisoning those which are imported.
Christmas is lurking around the corner and we can make conscious efforts to abandon the perfumed rice of the lands beyond the Gulf of Guinea and embrace our own brands.
Instead of traveling thousands of kilometers beyond the African Continent in search of rice grown by the people of Vietnam and Thailand, we can just walk to the northern part of the country at no great cost to us.
We grow our economy by giving employment to thousands of the youth, we keep our currency in check if we don’t import rice, Ghana will be better if we sever ties with Thailand and Vietnam as far as their rice is concerned.
