Tamale to host pre-harvest agribusiness conference

Preparations are underway to host this year's pre-harvest agribusiness conference, a platform for farmers in Northern Ghana, in Tamale.

The agribusiness event is aimed at expanding businesses and forging new partnerships to promote the growth of Ghana’s agricultural sector.

This year’s programme will create an avenue for farmers to discuss and exchange business ideas on increasing yields of crops such as maize, rice and soybean.

The programme comes off on Thursday, October 19, 2017 in Tamale, which has been the regular host of the annual event.

The event, which is in its seventh year, is expected to bring together, over 1,000 farmers, buyers, input dealers, manufacturers, government officials, development partners and financial institutions, among other stakeholders.  

Programme

This year's pre- harvest, which is on the theme, "Keep Going, No U-Turn", is to encourage agribusinesses working in the rice, maize and soy value chains to adopt best practices and seek new partnerships to ensure growth in the industry.

It will feature an exhibition to showcase leading agricultural organisations in seed production, fertiliser, storage, machinery and technology. Participants will have the opportunity to network with over 1,000 agribusinesses.

The programme is an initiative of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through its Feed the Future’s Agricultural Development and Value Chain Enhancement (ADVANCE) project, in collaboration with the Government of Ghana.

Expectations

According to the Chief of Party (COP), Dr Emmanuel Dormon, “The 2017 Annual Pre-Harvest Agribusiness Event promises to be one of the largest gatherings of value chain actors this year since the inception of the event seven years ago."

"It is very important for us to use this year’s event to celebrate what we have achieved and also find ways of ensuring sustainability," he stated.

Over the years, the event has helped farmers’ access new market opportunities and higher yielding seeds to increase agricultural productivity.

Background

The ADVANCE project, through USAID, is a five-year project which main goal is to increase the competitiveness of maize, rice and soya value chains in Ghana. It is targeted at more than 113,000 smallholder farmers by the end of 2018.

Feed the Future is a United States of America (USA) Government’s global hunger and food security initiative. It focusses on smallholder farmers, particularly women and supports partner countries to develop the agriculture sector to spur economic growth and trade that increase incomes and reduce hunger, poverty and under nutrition in their respective countries.