Commercial rice farmers across Northern Ghana are mobilizing for a massive demonstration in Tamale on Monday, November 10, 2025, to protest what they describe as government neglect of the country’s food production sector.
The action is being organized with strong backing from key agricultural bodies, including the Association of Rice Producers and Millers, the Chamber of Agribusiness Ghana, the Association of Soya Value Chain Actors, the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG), the Ghana National Association of Farmers and Fishermen (GNAFF), the General Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU), CropLife Ghana, among others.
The planned demonstration follows months of frustration after the government assured, on September 23, 2025, that the National Food Buffer Stock Company (NAFCO) would procure all harvested rice and maize to stabilize prices. Farmers say that promise has not been fulfilled, leaving thousands stranded with unsold produce.
Speaking to A1 Radio’s Moses Apiah, the Executive Director of Akuafo Nketewa Company Limited, Mr. Charles Ayamba, said farmer groups estimate that more than 200,000 metric tons of paddy rice from the 2024 season remain in warehouses across the Upper East, Northern, and North East regions. Many smallholder farmers, already weighed down by high input costs and debt, are now on the brink of financial collapse.
Mr. Ayamba added that the situation has been worsened by an influx of cheaper—and in some cases, expired—imported rice smuggled into Ghana through unapproved borders. This, he said, has made local rice uncompetitive and deepened the financial losses of domestic producers.
“We cannot sit and watch our livelihoods destroyed while foreign rice floods our markets. Government must act now,” he warned.
According to Mr. Ayamba, farmers are demanding urgent action from the government to revive the sector. They are calling for the suspension of foreign rice imports for six months beginning November 2025 and intensified border surveillance; the development of a sustainable import management policy to gradually eliminate unnecessary rice importation; a directive requiring all public institutions—schools, hospitals, prisons, and security services—to purchase Ghana-grown rice and maize; the release of emergency funds to NAFCO for immediate procurement of surplus grains; and the introduction of guaranteed minimum producer prices for rice and maize to reduce exploitation and market volatility.
He cautioned that without immediate intervention, the nation risks not only the collapse of the northern rice industry but also food insecurity and worsening rural poverty.
Source: a1radioonline.com|101.1Mhz|Moses Apiah|Bolgatanga
