Promoting food security: Forge partnership to leverage data, tech in agric – WFP Country Director

THE Country Director for the World Food Programme (WFP) Ghana, Barbara  Clemens, has called for collaboration among various stakeholders, including government agencies, international organisations, private sector and farmers to leverage data and technology for agriculture development in Ghana.

She believes this can significantly boost productivity and ensure food security in the country.

She said to plan and implement agricultural policies effectively, it was crucial to measure whether objectives are being met which involves monitoring the progress of farmers on the ground.

She made the call in an exclusive interview with the Daily Graphic at the Executive Studio of the Graphic Communications Group Ltd in Accra.

Ms Clemens explained that technology played a vital role in addressing these issues, particularly in soil management, early warnings and anticipatory actions. 

She said despite the availability of data from various sources such as governments, private sectors and organisations such as WFP, there was a lack of coordination and sharing of information, a fragmentation that hinders the ability to provide critical and actionable insights to farmers.

She mentioned that the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) was making strides with initiatives such as a platform for smallholder farmers, which requires registration and geolocation of farms. 

That, she said, would allow for precise tracking of crop production and yield forecasts, however, these efforts were currently siloed. 

“Data exists, the government, private sector and international organisations are all collecting it in different forms. I think the only thing that is missing is that we are all not talking to each other and not getting access so that we can turn the industry on its head. 

We need to provide farmers with the needed information, they need to know what products and services are out there for them to use and data and technology can play a key role in that,” she said.

“Other continents have achieved that and we need to catch up by forging the right partnerships. Moving forward, better communication and collaboration among all stakeholders are essential to harmonise efforts to drive growth in the agricultural sector,” she added.

Addressing food insecurity 

Ms Clemens said to improve food security and nutrition, the WFP has empowered about 100,000 smallholder farmers to boost local food production. 

Highlighting how the organisation’s innovative approaches and partnerships have positively influenced numerous smallholder farmers in Ghana, she said several years ago, evaluations surfaced about the practice of importing food for humanitarian operations, which, while life-saving, sometimes undermined local agriculture by discouraging local production. 

Ms Clemens explained that as a result, the organisation quickly learned from experiences and adapted an approach to work with smallholder farmers and aggregators for large-scale food purchases. 

She said, “we integrated a nutrition component into our humanitarian operations, targeting malnourished individuals, including pregnant women and children under two, by sourcing specialised nutritious foods. 

One success story is the WFP's partnership with local aggregators and food production companies. Initially, the WFP discovered that engaging directly with individual smallholder farmers was too granular to achieve the scale required. Consequently, we partnered aggregators such as Premium Foods Limited and Yedent Agro Group to streamline procurement.”

“These partnerships signalled financial institutions the viability of these local companies. For instance, Premium Foods Limited has supplied WFP with over 15,000 metric tonnes of super cereal for humanitarian operations in countries including Burkina Faso and Cameroun. 

This effort has involved over 100,000 smallholder farmers in Ghana who supply the raw materials to Premium Foods. Moreover, Yedent Agro Group, although not directly supplying the WFP, has expanded into a multi-use facility producing various food products, including vegetarian meats,” she added.