Engineers Without Borders' Eat Ghana Rice Campaign
Last Updated 29 December, 2009 @ 20:01
Click to play the Ghana Rice Jingle!
If you walked around Tamale, the capital of Northern Ghana, earlier this year you might have heard a new radio jingle, promoting the nutritious and “stone-free” Ghana Rice. EWB sector leader Sarah Grant had been working to promote this idea with MoFA for almost a year, and after bringing the rice processors and sellers on-board, it was launched. The 4 week trial campaign was a success; Sarah ensured that there was an on-going monitoring effort to assess its reach, and this survey suggested that almost ½ of the target population had heard the radio jingle or seen the campaign and ¼ had purchased Ghanaian rice because of it.
How it Started
While at the market in the Northern town of Tamale, EWB's Director of Agribusiness in Ghana, Sarah Grant often noticed that large bags of imported rice dominated the vendor’s stalls. Rice is in high demand across Ghana so Sarah wondered why Ghanaians didn’t buy the rice that was being grown just 3 kilometers down the road. What she quickly learned was that local rice was perceived to be lower in quality than imported rice – despite the fact that Ghana’s rice is actually high in quality. Given that there was only a small market for Ghana rice, local farmers and processors were unable to make a living from their crops.
Here Sarah recognized an opportunity to change the lives of Ghana’s rice farmers. She brought an idea to the Ghanaian Ministry of Food and Agriculture, and together they launched the pilot marketing campaign called “Eat Ghana Rice.” The campaign included flyers, billboards and a radio jingle to encourage people to buy Ghanaian rice.
The “Eat Ghana Rice” campaign was incredibly successful. One half of the target population in Tamale heard the jingle or saw a billboard, and one quarter of consumers switched to locally-produced rice! Now, The Ministry of Food and Agriculture, with the help of EWB, is thinking of running a national campaign.
A billboard is unloaded at a market in Tamale, Ghana, promoting locally produced rice
Sarah Grant, talking about taking the campaign across the country on myEWB:
The Ghana Rice campaign is a response to decades of dumped rice from the US and Thailand in Ghana and advertisements promoting the perfume smell and pure white look of imported rice. The campaign will swing consumer preferences towards the more nutritious, fresh and locally produced rice.
So with the campaign only a couple of months from being released, how did we end up on National television?
To kick off the campaign EWB and MoFA organized a meeting with rice farmers, rice processors, millers and marketers. Representatives from rice organisations such as the Ghana Rice Inter-professional Body, and the Northern Region Rice Grower's Association represented the voice of rice farmers, processors, millers and marketers while representatives from the media ensured that their voices were broadcast across Ghana. At 6:00 am Ghana Standard Time today, the discussions during the meeting and the campaign itself was announced on national television. I wish I had some proof but just ask any Ghanaian and they'll tell you about it!
As for the meeting itself, there was a lot of discussion around rice processing. Having positive deviants present helped to highlight some of the positive practices in processing rice. Additionally, the dialogue between farmers, processors and millers was helpful in improving market linkages to improve quality.
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