Ghana’s ambitions to achieve rice self-sufficiency face a serious operational threat at its most important seed production facility, with rising electricity costs, stalled government seedling procurement, and encroachment by private developers converging to undermine the Dawhenya Irrigation Scheme.
Professor Maxwell Darko Asante, Director of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research Crops Research Institute (CSIR-CRI), has warned that without urgent intervention, the country could face significant disruptions to domestic rice production at a time when the government is intensifying efforts to reduce an import bill that currently runs into hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
Speaking at Dawhenya, Professor Asante described the rice sector as approaching a critical juncture, saying inadequate support systems risk reversing years of investment in local capacity. He called on the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) to prioritise procurement of certified rice seedlings produced at the scheme, which he described as the only facility in Ghana producing such seedlings at scale. Despite substantial investment by farmers who committed resources in anticipation of government-backed programmes, procurement has stalled, leaving large volumes unsold and creating financial pressure across the value chain.
“This situation is discouraging for farmers who have invested heavily in production but lack a guaranteed market to absorb their output,” Professor Asante said.
Beyond the seedling market breakdown, he raised concerns about artificial market distortions in the rice and maize value chains, alleging that some industry actors may be contributing to artificial gluts that sustain import dependency at the expense of domestic producers. He called for stronger regulatory oversight and clearer policy direction to ensure fair competition.
At the operational level, the stakes are even more immediate. Richard Afleh, Chairman of the Dawhenya Irrigation Scheme, disclosed that the scheme recently received an electricity bill of GH¢90,000 from the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), warning that operations could halt if the issue remains unresolved. “If the issue of high electricity tariffs is not addressed, operations may come to a halt, which would significantly disrupt rice production,” he said.
The electricity challenge at Dawhenya has deep roots. High power bills have repeatedly threatened the scheme’s viability over the decades, periodically reducing the acreage under cultivation. A one-megawatt solar facility, funded by the Korean government under the Ghana Water-Energy-Food Nexus Programme, broke ground in September 2025 and is expected to be completed by December 2026 but until that project is delivered, the scheme remains dependent on grid electricity at commercial tariff rates.
Dawhenya also faces encroachment from private developers, with Afleh warning that the loss of cultivable land poses a long-term threat to the scheme’s sustainability.
Ghana is currently about 51 percent self-sufficient in rice production, according to MoFA figures, against annual consumption that continues to grow. Improved seed varieties developed at Dawhenya, including AGRA Rice, Legon Rice 1, KoreaMo and Agyapa, were designed to offer higher yields and better resilience, gains that risk going unrealised if the scheme’s operational foundations continue to erode.
Industry observers note that the concerns from CSIR-CRI arrive as MoFA simultaneously pursues a series of high-profile agricultural partnerships, including a recent public-private deal with FarmMate Limited aimed at boosting tomato production, and an agreement with Sentuo Group on fertiliser manufacturing. The alarm from Dawhenya suggests that sustaining the infrastructure and input systems that underpin those ambitions will require equal attention.
