Rice glut: Inadequate storage hampering food mop-up - NAFCO

NAFCO says inadequate storage infrastructure is constraining efforts to purchase and preserve surplus rice and grains despite the government's release of GH¢300 million for strategic food reserves. According to Mr Osmond Amuah, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of NAFCO, "The challenge still remains that the storage space is inadequate." He also stated, "Buffer Stock warehouses have all been full. There's no space."

Mr. Amuah said that government interventions under agricultural programmes had significantly increased food production, resulting in excess produce on the market. NAFCO's installed storage capacity nationwide stands at about 129,000 metric tonnes, but only between 40,000 and 44,000 metric tonnes are currently usable. Ghana's storage deficit is estimated at about 420,000 metric tonnes. Mr. Amuah said that Ghana's annual grain consumption exceeds six to seven million metric tonnes. He appealed to Ghanaians to patronise locally produced rice.

Mr. Amuah said the government and NAFCO have begun refurbishing abandoned warehouses and expanding storage systems nationwide. The World Food Programme (WFP) is supporting NAFCO with equipment valued at more than one million dollars, while a contract worth nearly two million dollars has been awarded for rehabilitation works at a major warehouse facility in Tamale. Six private partners have been engaged under a zonal arrangement to support grain purchases across the Northern, Middle and Southern sectors of the country.