John Dumelo Brings Back “Operation Feed Yourself”

Actor cum farmer, John Dumelo has begun an advocacy for Ghanaians to consume their farm harvest.

In a Facebook post, Dumelo said he had launched “Operation Feed Ourselves”- an initiative which was launched fifty years ago.

In 1972, Ignatius Kutu Acheampong, Ghana’s head-of-state then launched the initiative with the aim of making the country self-sufficient in food production.

In the end, the initiative failed to yield the intended result as food remained scarce with prices of food skyrocketing.

The actor, in the post, shared pictures of himself and some Ghanaian farmers and rice farms.

According to Dumelo, the main focus of this initiative is to produce more foodstuffs in most parts of the country as well as encourage value addition to farm produce.

“The main focus of this initiative is to produce more foodstuff especially rice( from the Guan district and Northern parts of Ghana), tomatoes, onions and maize from other parts of the country.

“Another important aspect is to urge Ghanaians to add value to what we produce and consume Made in Ghana products.”

According to Observatory Economic Complexity, Ghana imported $391M worth of rice in 2020. For tomatoes, the Ghana Vegetable Producers and Exporters Association (Ghana Vegetables) indicates that annual tomato import from neighbouring Burkina Faso has climbed to US$400million.

But Dumelo, who is also a politician, is confident that this initiative will reduce the importation of rice, onion, and tomatoes by 50% by 2028 and therefore called on Ghanaians to join.

“Lets us all join hands to make this work. It’s a great time to be a farmer. God bless you and God bless Ghana.”

Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini