From Trade Routes to Dinner Plates: How Rice Took Over The Culinary Space
Imagine this, your friend introduces a product to you and explains its benefits, even though you have a similar product at home, you try the new product and since then you use the new product more than your own product.
This is the story of Ghana, a country which has none of its indigenous meals from rice but now, rice is one of the most important meals we have in Ghana now. How did we get here? Why do we consume imported rice more than our locally produced ones? Why is this topic important for discussion? These questions and more will be answered in this piece.
Rice is a cereal grain and its domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world’s population. It is mostly cultivated and eaten in Asia and Africa. All continents have at least a dish made with rice. This shows how far this cereal has gone. In Ghana, rice is used for a lot of meals. It has become an everyday staple in our homes. According to Helgi Library, in 2021, Ghana’s per capita rice consumption was 52.1kg, making rice the second most important meal after corn. It is mostly produced in the Volta, Northern and North East regions, just to mention a few. Some years ago, rice was treated as a very special meal and mostly eaten only during occasions like Christmas and Easter.
Rice became popular due to increased income and urbanisation. After independence, Ghanaians started making some good income and many places began to urbanise. This put them in good positions to earn money and afford the cereal. Since it was also easy to prepare as compared to the other staples like cassava and yam, people quickly adopted its consumption and gradually, it became a staple food in Ghana. Rice also became popular because it could be stored for a long time whether cooked or uncooked with low attention and would not spoil.
This was something the urban people needed since they did not have a lot of time.
Furthermore, the versatility of rice also contributed in the acceptance of the cereal by the people of Ghana. Ghanaians see rice as very versatile because not only is it easy to cook and store, it is also a meal that can be added to other foods to create a whole new meal. Jollof rice, waakye, rice balls,” check check “fried rice and many other dishes are made from rice. In Ghana, one can eat a rice meal each day for a week without repeating a meal, and that is a good thing because it helps save money. Food vendors have also gotten a source of income from preparing and selling these dishes.
So where does it become quite problematic and questionable? Even though rice is a major staple in the country, 55-60% of the rice consumed is not locally produced but imported from different countries mostly the Asian. According to Ghana Statistical Service, Ghana spent over 2.9billion Ghana cedis to import rice in 2023. The total consumption of rice in 2022 stood at 1.4 million metric tonnes. The high dependence on the import of rice despite the domestic potential to cultivate is really alarming. This is a ramification for the cedi and local job market.
Can we really blame the ordinary Ghanaian for choosing the imported rice over the locally produced ones? These imported rice come neatly packaged with fewer foreign materials like stones, dirt and broken grains. It is easy to cook without having to worry about chewing stones or having to sit down to pick stones. They also have good aromatic qualities. Can we say the same for most of our locally produced rice? Absolutely not. The locally produced rice comes with a lot of work. You would have to spend hours picking foreign materials from the rice and you might not even end up picking everything. Your teeth will still crash a stone or
two. They generate pests very easily as well. Comparing the two; imported rice and locally produced rice, many Ghanaians would prefer the imported rice even though they are more expensive than the locally produced ones.
What is the way forward? What can we do differently so they import on rice can be reduced and local consumption increased? We can do a lot to improve our rice industry so that the ordinary Ghanaian can choose it over the imported ones. The farmers can be educated on the new ways to cultivate their rice to make it faster, easier and healthy. While educating the farmers, there must be a lot of awareness about why they should also consider consuming locally produced rice. High technological equipments can be purchased to help the farmers process their rice so that it would be clean and free of foreign materials and pests. Good
marketing skills can also help sell the locally produced rice so that it can be appealing to Ghanaians and they can continue buying after first try.
In conclusion, rice has been incorporated in most of our dishes and has clearly been widely accepted by Ghana and this conversation has nothing to do with eliminating rice from our cuisine. Instead, since it is a vital part of our daily meals and thankfully it can be produced in Ghana, we can look at how to make it appealing for consumption in Ghana and even beyond our borders. The money used for importation can be used to better the industry and who knows, we might be investing in our next big cash crop as a country.
Source: Stephanie Woelinam Agbobli/ Lead News Online
