A United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) initiative equipping Ghanaian rice millers to produce nutrient-enriched rice for school feeding is improving student health across six regions, but the millers driving it are warning that an uneven playing field with imported rice threatens the programme’s long-term viability.
The fortified rice project, funded by the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and nutrition science company dsm-firmenich, and implemented in partnership with the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) under the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP), the Ghana Education Service (GES), the Ghana Health Service (GHS), and Women in Agriculture Development (WIAD), targets 157,510 students in public schools nationwide, comprising 111,247 basic school pupils and 46,263 Senior High School (SHS) students.
WFP has procured and delivered four rice fortification equipment units valued at over USD 80,000 to millers across four regions. Following installation at three mills, WFP supplied 60 metric tonnes (MT) of fortified rice kernels (FRK), valued at over USD 91,000, to support production. The fortified rice is distributed to basic schools through caterers and to SHSs via the National Food Buffer Stock Company (NAFCO).
Franco Obour, Managing Director of Franco Food Processing and Farms in the Ejisu Municipality of the Ashanti Region, one of the pilot millers, described the imported rice competition as the sector’s most pressing problem. He said farmers were producing sufficient volumes to supply secondary schools in their area yet could not find buyers because of weak demand for local rice relative to imports. He called for a policy that would reserve a defined portion of the domestic market for locally produced rice, stopping short of demanding a full ban on imports.
In the Upper East Region, the Bolgatanga-Bawku-Navrongo (BBN) Women Cooperative Credit Union, another programme beneficiary, reported that WFP’s support had allowed it to increase production capacity from 315 tonnes to 485 tonnes annually, generating a profit of around GH¢400,000 and sustaining jobs that would otherwise have been lost.
On the nutrition side, results from the pilot are encouraging. Ashanti Regional School Health Education Programme (SHEP) Coordinator Emmanuel Addo said cases of anaemia had declined among students since the programme began, and that the initiative was being designed to drive broader community behaviour change through students, extending its impact beyond school walls into households. He flagged obesity, anaemia and malnutrition as the primary health challenges the fortified rice intervention was designed to address.
At Ejisu Senior High Technical School, one of the pilot institutions, Headmistress Grace Samani said the school overcame initial student resistance by investing in awareness campaigns and practical cooking demonstrations involving Home Economics students. Once students understood the nutritional difference between fortified unpolished rice and standard polished white rice, acceptance improved and no further challenges arose. She noted that the price of the fortified rice was comparable to regular market rice, removing cost as a barrier to adoption.
WFP is currently finalising a cost-benefit analysis to determine whether to recommend making fortified rice mandatory under the Ghana School Feeding Programme and for broader public consumption. The private school component of the programme covers 208 schools across 17 districts in four northern regions, with a projected reach of more than 60,000 children. So far, 123 MT of fortified rice has been supplied, contributing to a 7.9 percent increase in school enrolment in participating institutions.
