The National Food Buffer Stock company (NAFCO) says they will from next year supply all schools under the Free Senior High School programme with 100 percent Ghana rice.
According to NAFCO, this will help promote the consumption of local rice in the country.
Hanan Abdul-Wahab, the Chief Executive Officer of the company, speaking to Citi News indicated that the initiative has begun in schools located in the Ashanti Region and five regions in the northern part of the country.
Abdul-Wahab said the other regions are currently receiving a 50 percent supply but will be scaled up by the next academic year.
“When we started the policy in 2017, we started with Ghana rice but there was some resistance from the students because they were not used to it. But we took it upon ourselves to educate them on how nutritious Ghana rice is. We are in 2019, so the numbers for supply has increased. In Ashanti Region, we are doing a 100 percent of Ghana rice as well as in the five Northern Regions. In the rest of the region, we are doing 50 percent. So we are hoping that in the 2020/2021 academic year, we are going to cover every school with 100 percent of Ghana rice.â€
The Ministry of Food and Agriculture’s efforts to improve the production, marketing and consumption of Ghana-Made-Rice started in 2017 through the launch of the Planting for Food and Jobs programme.
But awareness has heightened recently after a campaign started by Citi FM’s CEO, Samuel Attah-Mensah.
The government of Ghana through the Ministry of Food and Agriculture has ordered milling machines from China and Brazil to scale up rice production.
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President Akufo-Addo during his recent media encounter said he will issue a directive next year for all State Institutions to purchase only our local rice.