Yara Ghana crowned Agribusiness of the Decade

Yara Ghana Limited has been honoured with the prestigious Agribusiness of the Decade award at the Millennium Excellence Awards.

The award, Africa’s most prestigious event, recognises and supports achievements in sustainable development, held under the royal patronage of Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the Asantehene.

Transforming agric landscape

The recognition is a tribute to Yara Ghana’s unwavering commitment to transforming the agricultural landscape of Ghana.

The company, over the past decade, has championed excellence in crop nutrition solutions, market development, cutting-edge research, farmer empowerment and sustainable agricultural practices.

All these have directly contributed to national food security and the socio-economic development of farming communities.

Since its establishment in 2007, Yara Ghana Limited has grown to become a leading crop nutrition solutions company with a mission to responsibly feed the world and protect the planet.

It has a vision of building a collaborative society, a world without hunger and a planet respected.  

Climate-friendly solutions

To meet those commitments, Yara Ghana works closely with partners throughout the whole food value chain to develop more climate-friendly crop nutrition solutions.

In addition, the company is committed to working towards sustainable mineral fertiliser production, providing farmers with critical knowledge and support, thereby contributing to food security and nutrition for all.

In 2022, following the start of the Russia-Ukraine war and recognising the impact on food security as a result of the unavailability of affordable fertiliser, Yara International ASA committed and donated USD20 million worth of fertilisers, equivalent to 360,000 bags of high-quality premium YaraMila Actyva fertiliser, to Ghana.

The donation was under the initiative “Yara Grow Ghana” through Yara Ghana Limited. 

Beneficiaries

In all, over 100,000 smallholder farmers benefited from the donation, by reducing farmers’ input cost per acre by 33.3 per cent, improving livelihoods and bringing about a market system development approach for productive smallholder farmers to build resilience and sustainability.

This contributed to national food production.

The Initiative not only help avert food insecurity across Ghana but also serves as a catalyst for a larger continent-wide commitment to increase food system resilience, grow food security and prevent hunger for 60 million people in Africa.

The initiative created jobs for over 500 youth and provided vital agronomic knowledge to boost productivity and support farmers effectively.

Overall, the Grow Ghana Initiative has been a success story, contributing to agricultural sustainability and prosperity in Ghana.

The initiative also led to increased staple crop productivity, resilient farming systems and economic impact within the country.

Commitment to development

Speaking after receiving the award, the Country Manager of Yara Ghana, Theresa Randolph, thanked the organisers for the recognition, saying, “We are humbled and honoured to be named Agribusiness of the Decade.

“This award is not just for Yara Ghana, it belongs to the hardworking farmers who rise every morning to grow the food that feeds our nation.

This award goes to the team, our partners and every individual who believes that agriculture can be a force for economic development.

“At Yara, we firmly believe that the future of agriculture in Ghana lies in building a system where knowledge, technology and resources are readily accessible to farmers at every level,” Madam Randolph said.  

Yara ambition

She said the company aims to achieve the Yara Ambition of “Growing a Nature-Positive Food Future” through environmentally sustainable food production systems.

“We need to extend knowledge transfer of better ways of farming to maximise production and profitability, with less impact on the environment, natural resources and innovative ways of dealing with climate change,” she said.

Madam Randolph stated that as Ghana and the African continent moved toward greater agricultural sustainability, Yara Ghana stood as a beacon of what agribusiness leadership should look like: “visionary, responsible and relentlessly dedicated to feeding the future.”