Stakeholders in grain value chain meet

The first annual Southern Ghana Agribusiness Pre-harvest event for stakeholders in the grain value chain has been held in Kumasi to facilitate networking towards improving the quality of grains for consumption.

It was organised by the Agricultural Development and Value Chain Enhancement (ADVANCE) Programme, in partnership with the Ghana Grain Council (GGC).

The event, held on the theme: “Quality sells more”, was funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

It was attended by farmers, financial institutions, chemical dealers, food processors and aggregators.

Why southern sector event

Speaking at the event, the Chief of Party of USAID ADVANCE Programme, Mr Emmanuel Dormon, said following the success of the northern sector event which had run for the past five years, there was the need to organise a similar one for the southern sector.

He said participation in the northern sector event increased every year from 260 people in 2011 to 960 in 2015, for which reason it was decided to replicate it in the south, so that southern value chain actors could also network and share ideas to enhance their operations.

Mr Dormon said the event was to increase market access and trade among the project targeted beneficiaries in both sectors, adding that “the northern Ghana Pre-harvest forum has made a significant impact since its inception five years ago”.

Food harvest losses

The Board Chairman of the GGC, Ms Victoria Norgbey, said on the average, the country lost 25 per cent of all food harvest through poor post-harvest handling.

That, she explained, translated into several millions of Ghana cedis that could increase the disposable incomes of smallholder farmers.

To offset the problem, she said the GGC, with support from the USAID ADVANCE Programme, was assisting farmers and aggregators to reduce post-harvest losses through interventions on quality farming and proper post-harvest handling techniques.