Rice for schoolchildren must come from Ghanaian farms – Ato Forson

Ghanaian rice farmers can finally breathe a massive sigh of relief because government is moving to put real cash directly into their pockets! Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson has declared that every grain of rice served to schoolchildren and security personnel using public funds must come straight from Ghanaian farms.

Speaking during a lively interview on the Citi Breakfast Show on Friday, November 13, 2026, Dr. Forson laid out bold legal reforms to fix our broken agricultural market. He questioned why public institutions continue spending taxpayers’ money on imported foreign rice while local farmers in Volta, Northern, and Ashanti regions struggle with unsold produce.

To ensure this bold policy goes far beyond mere political talk, the Finance Ministry is actively amending the Public Procurement Act. Under this new binding law, any state institution, caterer, or contractor spending government money to feed students or uniformed officers must buy local rice.

Dr. Forson made it crystal clear that institutions ignoring this directive will face strict legal sanctions. By tying state spending directly to domestic agriculture, the government wants to guarantee a permanent, reliable market for our hardworking rice growers.

Look at the real numbers behind this move, and you will understand why local farmers are celebrating. According to Dr. Forson, the Ghana School Feeding Programme and the Free Senior High School policy together spend roughly GH¢6 billion every single year on food.

In the newly presented 2027 Budget, government specifically allocated GH¢2.1 billion to sustain the School Feeding Programme alone. Redirecting even a fraction of this massive GH¢6 billion budget away from foreign imports keeps billions of Ghana Cedis circulating inside our local economy.

Beyond public schools, Dr. Forson is also tightening rules for commercial rice importers. Importers seeking permits to bring foreign rice into Ghana must soon prove they have purchased fifty percent of their volume from local producers first.

Meanwhile, the 2027 Budget establishes four dedicated rice production hubs across the country designed to create 125,000 sustainable jobs. Honestly, using Ghanaian money to eat Ghanaian rice makes total economic sense and protects our national currency from needless import pressure.

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Source: Ghana News Page