Sir Sam Jonah, Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, credited former military ruler Ignatius Kutu Acheampong’s “Operation Feed Yourself” with eliminating Ghana’s rice imports in 1975 and 1976. Speaking at the second edition of a lecture honoring Acheampong on Friday, November 13, 2026, Jonah highlighted how the programme demonstrated the power of national leadership when it mobilises citizens to produce the food the country consumes.
Jonah recalled that the idea began when Acheampong questioned his government during a budget review: “Don’t we have the land? Don’t we have the rain? Don’t we have the water bodies? What is wrong with us?” He quoted the former leader asking why Ghana was buying rice abroad.
The campaign, led by then‑Colonel Frank Bernasko, saw chiefs and communities across the country participate. The government supplied cutlasses, hoes, fertiliser and seeds at heavily subsidised prices and constructed irrigation dams to support production. Farmers in the north began exporting rice and tomatoes to neighbouring Upper Volta, now Burkina Faso, while Tamale earned the nickname “Rice City.”
Jonah noted the initiative’s ripple effects: secondary schools grew their own food, university students volunteered to harvest sugar cane, and factory workers and bank managers farmed on weekends. He said it may have been the only time the educated Ghanaian was proud to call himself a farmer.
“A country’s ability to feed itself is central to its development,” Jonah said. He called Operation Feed Yourself a lasting part of Acheampong’s legacy and noted that successive governments have promised to revive it. He added that recognising the former military leader’s policies does not mean endorsing the 1972 coup that brought him to power.
