PLASTIC RICE BROUHAHA…TIME FOR GHANA TO CASH-IN ON RICE PRODUCTION.

Over the weekend my friend Booty Brown chatting with me over a bottle of whisky complained that he suspects eating the plastic rice that lots of people are talking of. For the sake of the law, I will not mention the name of the rice brand but from his words, he suspects that the brand of rice he bought few weeks ago and had already consumed half of the 5kg bag is the said plastic rice.

Somewhere last year, a video went viral involving the manufacturing of what is purported to be rice made from plastic. From the view of the plastic rice in the video, it is very similar to the natural rice that we know and have been eating over the years. This resemblance has raised more suspicion, consequently causing fear and panic among many Ghanaians. Some others are actually refraining from eating rice for fear that they will eat plastic rice. (For this people, I ask that they rather turn to purchasing local rice because there is local rice on the market). The video also suggests that the said plastic rice is being imported into the country, thus the plastic rice could be bagged as a new rice brand or bagged as already existing rice brands. And with the influx of many foreign rice brands on our markets, one could conclude that the plastic rice will be part of the numerous foreign rice brands imported into the country. Meanwhile there are locally grown brands of rice on the market as well.

At the moment, rice consumers which undoubtedly constitute the larger chunk of Ghanaians are in a fix sort of since the market in dominated by foreign grown imported rice. From some indications, it is becoming difficult for one to differentiate between the natural rice and plastic rice which could be placing all foreign grown imported rice at a bad position in the minds of Ghanaians.

Though this phenomenon of plastic rice is bad for a rice consuming country like Ghana, this could be another avenue for a rice growing country like Ghana to rethink improvement in the rice sector. Ghana is one of those countries that have very fertile land for the cultivation of many agriculture produce which rice is included. 

Over the years successive governments seem to fail in improving rice production in Ghana from planting improved seeds to attracting Ghanaians to buy. It is no news that Ghanaians have a strong taste for foreign grown rice for which we see a low sale of locally grown rice. And this is due to several reasons ranging from the perception that Ghanaian farmers do not grow long grain and perfumed rice to the assertion that local rice is often broken and not delicious. I will not be quick to blame Ghanaians for this stereotype because before rice farmers began cultivating improved long grain perfume rice seeds, they cultivated seeds that often provided broken rice. Many Ghanaians did not like the idea of eating broken rice and this brought about the stereotyping that Ghanaian grown rice is not delicious. I call the assertion stereotype because for some time now Ghanaian rice farmers are growing long grain perfumed rice seeds thus are producing the same foreign grown rice we crave for.

I think this is where we have come to a crossroad, thus needs government to drum home the news that Ghanaian grown rice are also long grain and perfumed plus getting Ghanaians to understand the fact and change their perception about locally grown rice. 

This morning I spoke to my young Lawyer friend who abandoned his banking job to go into rice production up North. He confirmed to me that he and his farm team are done planting long grain perfumed rice. Meaning when it is time for harvesting, Rashid’s farm will be selling long grain perfumed rice to Ghanaians; same rice that is grown out there and imported here for which we are having cases of plastic rice on our markets.

Some months ago when I heard that Praire Volta Ltd, a rice growing company in Ghana collapsed, I got furious and asked myself when Ghana will be able to manage some of these state owned companies. I used to consume rice produced from PVL and the rice was so delicious. For years now, I have come to know that fresh rice that does not sit in a ware house for over a year is the best since it is healthy. So I was excited to be purchasing locally produced long grain perfumed rice from PVL since it was fresh and not stored for several years. 

But aside Praire Volta rice, other rice farmers and companies are springing up like that of my friend Rashid who are cultivating the same seeds that the foreign grower cultivate for which they must be supported and given the necessary incentives to feed Ghanaians.

With the plastic rice brouhaha plus other numerous advantages like employment creation, profit making and growth of the economy, concentrating on local rice production I think is the best way to go now. We have had occasions where governments try to improve rice production in Ghana but fail. I urge that this time, the story should not be like that of the old times where we failed at a lucrative rice production business. 

Thanks to waakye and omotuo sellers because if not for them, our local rice farmers will not have people buying their produce.  But for the moment where our life and health is at stake, we should capitalize on this and view it as a blessing in disguise. 

For this, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in collaboration with rice farmers across the country should develop modern ways to cultivate rice thereby providing healthy rice to Ghanaians. 

You have been reading Realities from my Medulla Oblongata.

Thank you for reading!

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