Sam Jonah calls for renewed agricultural investment, recalls Operation Feed Yourself achievements

Business leader Sir Sam Jonah has criticised successive governments for abandoning the agricultural gains of General Ignatius Kutu Acheampong’s Operation Feed Yourself campaign, arguing that Ghana allowed a successful food production initiative to collapse.

Delivering the Second General I.K. Acheampong Memorial Lecture in Accra on Friday, November 13, 2026, Sir Jonah said the programme, launched in 1972, was a nationwide mobilisation effort that brought traditional authorities and communities into the drive for food self-sufficiency.

He said the campaign used radio broadcasts and information vans to encourage people across the country to participate in agricultural production.

“Cutlasses, hoes, fertiliser and seed were sold at heavily subsidised prices. Feeder roads carried produce to market. Above all, the government invested in water, from Dawenya and Asutsuare to the great Tono dam in the north,” he said.

Sir Jonah said the campaign produced significant results, particularly in rice production.

“Rice imports fell to zero in 1975, and again in 1976. Zero. Farmers in the North exported rice and tomatoes to Upper Volta, and Tamale earned a nickname, The Rice City,” he said.

He argued that the programme demonstrated Ghana’s capacity to achieve substantial improvements in domestic food production when agricultural policies were supported by sustained investment and nationwide participation.

Sir Sam Jonah said the programme’s decline represented a missed opportunity for the country.

“The tragedy of Operation Feed Yourself is not that it failed. It is that it worked, and we let it go,” he said.

He contrasted the campaign’s reported achievements with Ghana’s current food import bill, which he put at about US$2 billion annually, with rice and chicken accounting for a significant share.

Operation Feed Yourself was introduced under Acheampong’s military government in 1972 to promote domestic food production and reduce dependence on imports. Colonel Frank Bernasko played a leading role in the campaign, helping mobilise traditional authorities and communities.

Sir Jonah’s remarks formed part of a broader argument for renewed investment in agriculture and a stronger national commitment to food security.