‘Operation Feed Yourself’ cut Ghana’s rice imports to zero in 1975 and 1976 – Sam Jonah

Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, Sir Sam Jonah, has credited the late General Ignatius Kutu Acheampong’s ‘Operation Feed Yourself’ with ending Ghana’s rice imports in 1975 and 1976.

Speaking at the second edition of a lecture honouring the legacy of the former military leader on Friday, November 13, 2026 said the programme showed what national leadership can do when it gets citizens producing the food the country eats.

Sir Sam said the idea began with a question Acheampong put to his government while reviewing its first budget.

“Don’t we have the land? Don’t we have the rain? Don’t we have the water bodies? What is wrong with us?” Sir Sam Jonah quoted Acheampong asking why Ghana was buying rice abroad.

The campaign was led by then Colonel Frank Bernasko, with chiefs and communities across the country taking part. The government sold cutlasses, hoes, fertiliser and seeds at heavily subsidised prices and also built irrigation dams to support production.

According to Sir Sam, farmers in northern Ghana began exporting rice and tomatoes to neighbouring Upper Volta, now Burkina Faso, and Tamale picked up the nickname “Rice City.”

He said the effect went beyond harvests as secondary schools grew their own food, university students volunteered to harvest sugar cane, and factory workers and bank managers farmed at weekends.

In his words, it may have been the only time the educated Ghanaian was proud to call himself a farmer.

Sir Sam argued that a country’s ability to feed itself is central to its development. He called Operation Feed Yourself a lasting part of Acheampong’s legacy and noted that successive governments have promised to revive it.

In the remarks that formed part of a wider assessment of Acheampong’s record, Sir Sam made clear that recognising the former military leader’s policies does not mean endorsing the 1972 coup that brought him to power.