News:
November 13, 2026
The government will invest $3 billion to build a commercially organized agriculture economy, Finance Minister Dr. Atto Forson announced Thursday while presenting the 2027 budget to Parliament.
Agriculture currently accounts for approximately 20% of Ghana’s economy, nearly 40% of employment, and about 25% of export earnings, with the reach even wider when transport, processing, packaging, trade, and rural services are included, the Minister noted.
Yet Ghana spends billions of dollars annually importing food and agricultural products that can be produced competitively at home—a bill that weakens the cedi, transmits external price shocks, and denies Ghanaian communities a fair share of national demand.
“Every avoidable import is more than a customs entry: it is a farm that was not financed; a factory that remained idle; a transport contract that was never signed; and a job that was created somewhere else,” Dr. Forson said.
Eight Integrated Industries
The Minister outlined plans to build eight integrated industries: rice, sugar, poultry, maize and soya feed, aquaculture, oil palm, vegetables, and cocoa value addition. Each industry will have its own commercial plan, financing structure, production targets, processing capacity, market rules, and delivery unit.
They will operate through one national farm-to-market system connecting secure land and water to improved seed and breeds, irrigation, mechanization, extension services, anchor farms, and organized outgrowers—then linking production to storage, processing, packaging, transport, institutional purchasing, retail markets, and exports.
“The farm must no longer stand alone at one end of the value chain while the market waits at the other,” Dr. Forson said. “Production without storage creates gluts and losses. Processing without reliable supply creates idle factories. Credit without markets leaves farmers in debt. We will fix this value chain!”
Rice Value Chain
The government will create Rice Development Hubs in Afram Plains, Volta Basin, Western Ghana, and Northern Ghana to organize production around irrigation, mechanization, silos, modern mills, packaging, and logistics.
The hubs will bring an additional 100,000 hectares under production, target yields of five to six metric tonnes per hectare, and support approximately 125,000 jobs. All hubs will benefit from targeted tax incentives.
Additionally, the government will amend public procurement laws to require that public funds spent on rice and other staples for schools, hospitals, and other public institutions purchase only foodstuff grown in Ghana.
“The principle is simple: the money of the Ghanaian people must create opportunity for the Ghanaian people,” Dr. Forson said. “If you use Ghana’s money to buy rice, you must buy Ghana rice!”
Beginning 2027, rice import licenses will be tied to purchases from verified Ghanaian farmers and millers, with the local-purchase ratio rising as domestic output expands. Commercial rice imports will be prohibited by 2030.
Sugar, Poultry, and Fish Security
Ghana will pursue self-sufficiency in sugar by 2030 through locally grown cane, irrigated production zones, nucleus estates, organized outgrowers, and commercially viable mills. Import permits and quotas will decline as verified Ghanaian output rises.
For poultry, the government will build the full value chain—from breeder farms and hatcheries to day-old chicks, feed, vaccines, veterinary laboratories, modern poultry houses, processing plants, cold storage, and retail distribution. Commercial maize and soyabean clusters will link farmers directly to feed mills through bankable contracts, as feed accounts for 60-70% of poultry production costs.
To address Ghana’s annual fish-supply gap of approximately 500,000 metric tonnes, aquaculture will become the principal source of new supply. Commercial and smallholder aquaculture clusters will receive quality broodstock, fingerlings, feed, cages, ponds, tanks, aquatic-health laboratories, disease surveillance, and water-quality systems.
Oil Palm Development
The government will develop 100,000 new hectares of oil palm across the Western, Central, Eastern, Volta, and Ashanti production belts. A $500 million patient-finance window with long tenors and a five-year moratorium will support the program, which has the potential to support more than 250,000 jobs and reach self-sufficiency and export scale by 2032.
“I can now report that 100,000 hectares of suitable land has been identified,” Dr. Forson said. “The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources is going through the process of acquisition, in line with international best practice. The $500 million World Bank financing has been agreed on with the Bank and will soon be presented to Parliament for consideration.”
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com