Let’s protect local rice farmers

Rice, a staple food in Ghana, is enjoyed by many Ghanaian citizens. It is therefore not surprising that the ministry of food and agriculture in collaboration with other stakeholders are supporting our local rice farmers to expand production for domestic consumption.
However, many a local rice farmers have not been largely motivated to go into large scale rice production. This is because of the lack of market for their produce. Smuggling of rice into the country has been a major problem to our rice farmers. And to compound matters, when rice are smuggled into the country, they are sold at far cheaper prices to the detriment of our local rice.
Therefore, the news that Ghana is losing $40 million yearly due to rice smuggled into the country is indeed very worrying. On the front page of the Daily Graphic of Wednesday, September 1, 2010 it was reported that estimates by the Food and Beverages Association show that 100,000 metric tonnes out of 350,000 metric tonnes of rice brought into the country are smuggled. Definitely no one needs to tell us that through such criminal acts the country loses millions of revenue because of tax evasion.
The alarming rate of smuggled rice into the country, according to the Daily Graphic story, is due to high duty charges. And among the border areas where these criminals operate are Elubo, Dadieso and Enchi. Smuggling in whichever way we look at it is criminal and must be stopped immediately to help save our local rice farmers.
Already local Ghanaian rice farmers are facing stiff competition on the market with imported rice. And with this development, many of them will not be encouraged to go into large-scale production.
Today strongly believes that this is a problem that demands an immediate attention. We need not sit down for a few selfish Ghanaians to collapse our local rice industry. In fact, immediate steps must be taken by government to curb this smuggling menace.
As part of measures to fight the canker, Today recommends that security be tightened at the various borders where the smuggling has been recurring. It is also important to flush out corrupt security personnel at the various borders as they may be major players in this criminal act.
Added to the above, the paper urges government to do something about its high tariffs and taxes on rice and other food commodities. This is because high tariffs and taxes on rice have been identified as a major contributory factor to the rice smuggling into this country. It is therefore our hope that government will employ proactive measures to deal decisively with the issue.