IFS proposes Rice Development Board to transform exports
By Esther Korantemaa Offei
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has proposed the creation of a Rice Development Board (RDB) to lead government-backed interventions aimed at transforming Ghana’s rice sector and cutting the country’s heavy reliance on rice imports.
Presenting findings from the IFS Occasional Paper No. 28, titled “Increasing Importation of Rice in Ghana: Can the Country Transform Its Fortunes in the Rice Sector?”, Dr Said Boakye, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute, stressed that Ghana’s overdependence on the private sector has led to persistent market failures, stalling domestic rice production.
“Unlike Vietnam and Thailand, where governments play active roles in their rice sectors, Ghana has relegated itself to merely creating an enabling environment while expecting the private sector to fix systemic issues. This approach has failed,” Dr Boakye stated.
He explained that the proposed Rice Development Board would coordinate all government activities across the rice value chain, from seed production to processing and marketing.
According to the IFS, the Board should be legally established and adequately funded to ensure policy continuity beyond changes in government.
Dr Boakye noted that the new Board would be responsible for promoting local fertiliser production to meet farmers’ needs at affordable prices, providing certified high-yielding rice seeds, expanding irrigation infrastructure across Ghana’s 1.9 million hectares of land suitable for irrigated rice cultivation, and driving the mechanisation of rice farming operations.
He added that the Board could also support private-sector participation in rice marketing, particularly for export.
The IFS further recommended that the Rice Development Board lead initiatives to acquire and redistribute land for rice farming to address long-standing challenges posed by the country’s traditional land tenure system.
Dr Boakye also proposed that the Board take the lead in mobilising the youth into rice farming through credit-based support schemes.
He emphasised that with strong institutional backing and targeted investment, Ghana could become a major net exporter of rice, leveraging rising global demand projected to grow from USD387.84 billion in 2025 to USD449.61 billion by 2030.
“If Ghana had produced just 7.4 million metric tonnes of rice in 2022, the country could have exported over six million tonnes, the same volume that earned Vietnam USD3.2 billion that year,” he indicated.
