The issue of importation and its effect on the local economy is not new. It comes up from time to time. I believe there is a great confusion about the effects importation can have on the people who live in Ghana. A classical example is what happens in the rice importation industry. The problem which occurs is obviously because the demand on rice is rising and the amount of rice the local farmers produce is not enough to meet the demand. This development was more pronounced especially in the year 2002-2003. The amount of imported rice went up from 296,953 metric tons to 797,705 metric tons. The situation on the local rice market was not always that threatening for local farmers. In the seventies, precisely 1972, when General Acheampong was in power, he introduced a program named “Operation Feed Yourself”. Of course you can argue that this program was just pure populism and you also have to keep the political circumstances in mind, but the idea behind it, that Ghana can subsist itself with local agriculture, is an important and still existing idea. During the seventies Ghana could mechanize rice crop growing and, in fact, the local rice production was growing and Ghana was able to produce more rice than they had to import. Rice was not always been the main staple for Ghanaians. Rice was eaten by wealthy people who lived mainly in the cities, but as you can see, nowadays rice is eaten by everybody. According to ‘Brot fuer die Welt’, a german Non Governmental Organization, the consumption per head for rice has risen from 11kg in 1992 to 21.6 kg in 2003. So you might think if the demand for rice increases that rapidly the local farmers should benefit from that. But that is a false thought. The problem comes with imported rice or rather with the liberalization of the domestic market in the 1992 in the course of the adjustment programs which started 1983. The imported rice comes mainly from USA, Taiwan ,Vietnam or Thailand. This rice is ousting the local rice off the domestic market and that is making many local rice farmers lose their jobs. It is not surprising that the 800,000 Ghanaian rice farmers in the country cannot satisfy the rice demand in 2011. Therefore Ghana needs to import a huge amount of rice. The current situation is that the importation of rice is now up to 330,000 tons for the year 2011/2012. In 2010/2011, it was 320,000 tons of rice. The higher numbers on imported rice comes along with a higher investment on imported rice. Ghana will spend 300 million US dollars on rice importation next year, but only when the prices on the world food market stay solid otherwise it could be far higher, according to the Business and Financial Times Newspaper. At this point you may ask yourself, why is the rate of imported rice still rising? And who is in charge of these decisions? There are two main points we have to look at. The first one is the liberalization of the domestic market in 1983. The liberalization came as part of the adjustment programs which were very much connected with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. The adjustment programs were supposed to bring Ghana’s economy back on track but one of the premises was that Ghana opened its market. The idea behind it was that the economy will only get on track when Ghana takes action in international trade. So the liberalization of the market was not quite deliberate. It was bound to the conditions of the loans from IMF and World Bank. The second factor brings up the issue of ‘dumping’ of rice. The term dumping here means “the flooding of a market, especially one in a foreign country, with cheaply priced merchandise”. The rice is imported at a very low price, even though the price on the world food market is higher. But it is not in the hands of the Ghanaian government to fix prices. Countries like USA spend huge amounts of money on agriculture subventions especially in rice production. They produce much more than the need for domestic use and the excess is exported into countries like Ghana at a very low price, so the local rice appears more expensive than the exported rice. Even though rice importation increases, MOFA is looking for a way to encourage the local farming industry to reverse the current importation rate from 70% imported rice to 70% locally produced rice and 30 % imported rice by the year 2015. Dr. Samuel Kojo Dapaah, USAID Chief Technical Advisor to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) stated that the issue is no longer about getting self-sufficient in rice production, as “Food Security Ghana” wrote on its website on the 30th August. Dr. Samuel Kojo Dapaah gave four solutions that will help the country achieve the 2015 goal. The first one he mentioned was the subsidization of fertilizers, even though there is a minority who smuggle fertilizers into the neighboring countries to sell them there. Dr.Dapaah also talks about the quality of the seeds. It is a major issue when it comes to deciding which rice the consumer will buy so MOFA are working on very good quality seed in order to provide them to the farmers. He also said that MOFA has increased the number of combine harvesters to 46 at present, so the farmers are able to harvest on time. That reduces the loosing of the crop, due to fire. This year another 100 combine harvesters will be introduced into the system. Last but not least is the Buffer Stock Company. It is a program brought up by MOFA to give the local farmers incentives and providing them a better working environment. Because of the sudden increase of the paddy rice farming, the price is more likely to go below the 27 Ghana cedis per 84 kg mark. So to ensure that farmers make profit, the Buffer Stock Company buys the rice from the system to maintain the 27 Ghana cedis for 84 kg of rice. But there is a great confusion about the importation figures of 2008 and 2009. In 2008 the government dropped the 20% importation duty on rice due to the high global food prices. Dr. Samuel Kojo Dapaah said there was a serious increase of rice importation in 2009, 500,000 metric tons were imported ,worth 600 million dollars. However, the booklet of the MOFA “Agriculture in Ghana: Facts and Figures 2009” give a different figure. In 2009 an amount of 383,985 metric tons were imported worth 218.5 Million dollars. The Chief Director also said there was a “serious increase in 2009”, so you would expect that in 2008 Ghana imported less rice than in 2009. But this is not the case. The figures in the booklet indicate that in 2009 Ghana imported 383,985 metric tons worth 218.5 Million dollars. But in 2008 the figures are higher. Ghana imported 395.400 metric tons so it is even more rice imported than in 2009. You can speculate if the Chief Director has not got his facts right or if there is a major mistake in the booklet. But I leave the speculation to others. The conclusion is a bit ambivalent. Ghana made some serious mistakes in the past in relation to trade and rice production. But I also have to note the pressure by World Bank and IMF was pretty high. Dr. Samuel Kojo Dapaah mentioned the goal MOFA want to achieve until 2015 but I am not sure if this goal is realistic, especially if you look at the confusion within the figures …there might also be confusion in their statements.