The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, has called on rice producers to increase production of the staple to meet the rising demand.

Dr Akoto made the call when he paid a working visit to Global Agricultural Development Company Ghana Limited (GADCO) rice farm and mill at Fiavi, near Sogakope in the Volta Region.

He reiterated Government’s commitment to making the country rice production self-sufficient by 2023-2024 and called for support from all stakeholders to increase, especially, the milling capacity.

The Minister encouraged the citizens to continue to consume more locally produced rice because “our local rice is fresh and nutritious.”

Dr Akoto commended GADCO for the high quality and well packaged rice and the contribution to government’s “Planting for Food and Job” programme.

Mr Joel Tsatsu, the General Manager of GADCO, said: “We will like to use this opportunity to reiterate our commitment to support the production of tonnes of local rice where Ghana will become self-sufficient in the near future.”

He said the company believed that the government’s target of achieving self-sufficiency in rice production by 2023 was achievable, adding: “we will all work to support this goal.”

The company works with smallholder farmers and provides them with technical support and marketing opportunities with a milling capacity of three metric tonnes per hour.

“Currently we supports about 600 smallholder rice farmers with a total of 1,400 hectares of land in seven locations within the Volta and Greater Accra regions,” Mr Tsatsu said.

GADCO is part of the RMG Concept Group, and specialised in producing rice and developing an extensive smallholder farmers’ programme in the Volta Region.