Ghana's Economy :  Ghana must stop importing rice- Israeli Ambassdor

Israeli Ambassador to Ghana, H.E Ami Mehl  has charged government to urgently take steps to cut down on the amount of rice exported into the country.

The Ambassador says he  is taken aback by the quantity of rice imported into  the county, labelling it crazy.

Mr. Mehl said this in an interaction with journalists during the opening of the agricultural facility, B-Bovid in the Mpohor-Wassa East District of the Western Region.

He  said,”You can’t have about 60 percent of the population being subsistence farmers and expect growth; rather I suggest that smaller farmer groups come together to form large group to advance the sector. It’s not good for Ghana to have 50 per cent of its population doing farming. 5 to 10 percent of the population that will go professionally into agriculture can make miracles, which can make Ghana self-sufficient in agriculture and a strong exporter of agric products.”

READ MORE: Rice Importation Gov’t charged to ensure imported rice meet standard

He addressed the gathering on the need for Ghana to improve agriculture production in order to produce enough food to feed Ghanaians. He believes a country like Ghana should not be importing rice and poultry products.

 “Agribusiness should be large-scale. Ghana is an agricultural country, so there is a lot of potential for agribusiness in Ghana. But it should be on a large-scale. The BBOVID example is a brilliant idea of how to use small scale methods to do big things in the agriculture sector”.