{"id":102479,"date":"2025-11-08T13:25:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T13:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=102479"},"modified":"2025-11-08T13:25:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T13:25:12","slug":"local-rice-glut-fund-rice-aggregation-to-help-farmers-not-just-gold-buyers-miracles-aboagye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=102479","title":{"rendered":"Local rice glut: Fund rice aggregation to help farmers, not just gold buyers \u2013 Miracles Aboagye"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>2 Minute, 25 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
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Director of Communications for the Bawumia Campaign, Dennis Miracles Aboagye, has called on the government to adopt a new approach to addressing the ongoing local rice glut by funding private rice aggregators in the same way it supports gold buyers.<\/p>\n

Speaking on JoyNews\u2019 Newsfile<\/em><\/strong> on Saturday, November 8, Mr Aboagye argued that the government should not be the one directly buying and storing rice, but rather, it should empower private players to purchase and manage excess produce on behalf of the state.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWho says government is the one supposed to go and buy and hold? When we wanted to buy gold, what did we do? We carried money and gave it to private people to go and buy the gold and bring it to us.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He said the same model could be used in the agriculture sector to ensure that rice farmers have a guaranteed market for their produce.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf you think that the rice sector is very important, then do the same thing. Give money to private people to go and buy the rice, aggregate it, keep it somewhere, and then, as and when schools, hospitals, and prisons need them, they can go and buy to cook. That guarantees the farmer a certain price and a certain buyer.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

According to Mr Aboagye, the government is already one of the biggest consumers of rice through its feeding programmes in schools, hospitals, training colleges, and prisons. <\/p>\n

He therefore questioned why the state does not have a policy compelling all such institutions to consume only locally produced rice.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhy is it that the government doesn\u2019t have a policy that makes it mandatory for every secondary school, hospital, and prison to consume only locally produced rice? These are places where the government is already buying the rice. If they all buy local, the farmers\u2019 produce will not go to waste.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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\u201cGo to the buffer stock warehouses, you\u2019ll see plenty of imported rice. That is something the government could have bought from our local farmers instead.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Mr Aboagye said the state must be prepared to absorb the cost of supporting local producers, especially when pursuing policies to stabilise the currency.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf you have a policy of keeping your currency at a certain level and you use artificial injections, you must be mindful of the cost,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat cost is to cushion your local producers. Even if it means buying their goods at a slightly higher price, that\u2019s your cost of the decision.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He advised the government to invest more in real sectors such as agriculture rather than relying on short-term economic fixes.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou can\u2019t just pump dollars into the system to manage your currency, invest in the real sectors, support the rice industry, and give them time to build capacity. When local producers can compete with importers, it\u2019ll naturally reduce demand for foreign rice and ease pressure on the cedi.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

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\"LocalDirector of Communications for the Bawumia Campaign Team, Dennis Miracles Aboagye, has called on the government to adopt a new approach to addressing the ongoing local rice glut by funding private rice aggregators in the same way it supports gold buyers.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5819,12130,1616,1883,10,9,12132],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-farmers","category-local-rice-glut","category-miracles-aboagye","category-national","category-politics","category-popular","category-rice-aggregation"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=102479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102479\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=102479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=102479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=102479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}