The National Coordinator of Sustainable Food Systems of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), Nanga Kaye has called for improvement in Ghana’s food supply chains from production to distribution.
Speaking at the 8th Annual Pre-Harvest Agribusiness Conference and Exhibition launch in Accra on Tuesday, Kaye said “we could point out and assess the structural and logistics bottlenecks which drive up inefficiencies that cause a colossal amount of food waste every year.”
“It is crucial to improve the supply chain to connect inputs to farm and then on to storage, processing, transport, and distribution to consumers, in order to increase productivity and income of small-holder farmers in Ghana,” Kaye explained.
This year’s conference dubbed “Transforming Agricultural Production in Northern Ghana: The role of modern agro-based industries”, is expected to take place in the Northern Region from October 3 to October 5, 2018, under the sponsorship of USAID, the World Food Programme (WFP) and Yara Ghana, in partnership with AFGRI John Deere, Ecobank, and Interplast.
The Supply Chain management in agribusiness has the potential to strengthen the agricultural marketing channels and position Ghana to play a major role in the region and sub-region for supply of foods, especially in grains and processed foods.
Kaye said, “a strong agribusiness supply chain will enable Ghana to compete in modern consumer-driven markets, thus leading to improvement of life of Ghanaians, especially smallholder farmers.”
At the launch, the Executive Director of Agrihouse Foundation, Alberta Nana Akyaa Akosa said “the conference seeks to get the Agribusiness sector to influence transformation, with the heightened focus on public-private partnerships and investment opportunities, to raise the bar and create an action-driven blueprint for an increasingly sustainable agricultural movement.”
Akosa revealed that this year, Agrihouse Foundation takes over the organisation of the Pre-harvest agribusiness conference and exhibitions from USAID ACDI VOCA, which had handled it very effectively for the past seven years.
Akosa explained that, the idea of the Pre-Harvest Agribusiness event is in response to the need for the right platform for bringing commodity buyers, agribusiness service providers and farmers to establish business relationships and discuss contracts and explore and exploit other growth possibilities.
This event will feature an exhibition showcasing agricultural organisations in the areas of seed production, fertilizer, finance, fisheries, storage, machinery, livestock, packaging and processing, food, innovation, ICT, government agencies, development partners, farmers, and farming and associations.
The Pre-Harvest event will offer a unique perspective on Agribusiness in the Northern Region, international communities, financial institutions, input dealers and a broad range of service providers.
By Joshua W. Amlanu