At the Africa Food Systems Forum (AFSF) in Kigali, Rwanda, Ghana’s Deputy Minister for Food and Agriculture, Hon. John Dumelo, utilized a high-level ministerial dialog to advocate for greater African cooperation in the effort to modernize the continent’s agriculture sector.
Dumelo emphasized that Africa cannot continue to handle its food problems in isolation, especially when it comes to rice production, when addressing other African Ministers of Agriculture and previous African Presidents at the summit.
He maintained that if West Africa is to considerably lessen its reliance on imported rice and improve its own food systems, then increased regional cooperation, shared knowledge, and coordinated agricultural strategies are crucial.
Even though Africa has a lot of agricultural area, water resources, and a huge number of farmers who could produce more, rice has long been one of the key food items that contribute to the continent’s import bill.
As a result, Dumelo’s involvement emphasized the necessity of going beyond individual national initiatives and creating a coordinated regional plan that enables African nations to support one another.
He stated in his address that, the continent already possesses many of the human resources and skills needed to increase its level of food production self-sufficiency. Governments, organizations, farmers, investors, and development partners must work together more closely.
Improved farming technology, access to high-quality seeds, irrigation, mechanization, funding, research, and post-harvest management are just a few of the topics on which the Deputy Minister called on African leaders to collaborate.
He also highlighted the importance of creating systems that allow successful agricultural innovations and knowledge to move more easily across borders.
A united approach to rice production
Rice production presents a particularly important opportunity for West Africa, where demand continues to grow alongside population and urbanisation.
Rather than individual countries competing to solve the same problems separately, Dumelo advocated for a more integrated approach in which countries can share expertise, technology and investment while developing their respective comparative advantages.
His message was clear: Africa must align its efforts if it wants to achieve meaningful agricultural transformation.
The call also comes at a time when food security has become an increasingly important economic and strategic issue for African countries. Heavy dependence on food imports exposes economies to international price shocks, currency pressures, supply disruptions and global market uncertainties.
Increasing local and regional production, therefore, is not simply an agricultural objective. It is also a matter of economic resilience and national security.
Dumelo’s participation at the AFSF comes as Ghana continues to place agriculture and food production at the centre of its development agenda.
For Ghana and its neighbours, boosting domestic rice production could create opportunities across the agricultural value chain—from farmers and input suppliers to processors, transporters, retailers and exporters. However, increasing production alone will not be enough.
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African countries will also need stronger storage and processing infrastructure, reliable markets, affordable financing and policies that encourage private-sector investment.
The ministerial dialogue provided an important platform for African leaders to examine these challenges collectively and consider practical solutions.
Dumelo’s appeal for alignment underscores the broader reality that Africa’s food-system transformation will require more than speeches and individual programmes. It will require governments to coordinate their policies and turn regional commitments into concrete action.
If African countries can successfully combine their agricultural knowledge, resources, technology and investment, the continent could gradually move from being a major food importer to becoming a stronger producer and supplier of food to its own growing population and potentially the global market.
For West Africa, the rice sector could become one of the clearest tests of that ambition. At the Kigali forum, Dumelo’s message was therefore not simply about rice. It was a call for African countries to recognise that food security is a shared responsibility—and that cooperation may be the key to unlocking the continent’s agricultural potential.