More than 150 farmers in the Builsa District have been trained on the concept of the Ghana Warehouse Receipt system to help enhance their performance in the structured trade.
The training was held separately at Namongsa, Chodem and Chuchuliga in the Builsa District with the objective bringing all farmers, traders and processors on one platform to ensure quality maize and soya beans and to increase productivity and profitability in the grain value chain.
The capacity building training also provided the farmers with skills to assess finance using their grains as collateral from financial institutions.
The training was facilitated by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) represented by Dr. Godwin Kojo Ayenor, a consultant and funded by the Economic Cooperation and Development –SECO and the World Bank.
The trainees are expected to step up best practices in post- harvest handling, enhance market linkages and better bargaining skills after the training to compete in the Ghana commodity exchange platform which is more open, structured and an organised market place.
Madam Akpaalie Akanlingpagya, a participant who spoke in Buli in an open forum reiterated the challenges they faced as farmers annually among which she mentioned post-harvest losses, and lack of standardised pricing.
In her assessment of the training, she expressed gratitude to the IFC- SECO and the World Bank for the initiative and said the coming into existence of the Ghana Ware House Receipt System, “is a dream come true for women in the district”.
Meanwhile, Abaanlie Azagsuk, also a participant, hoped that as farmers prepared themselves towards the new farming season, the new skills received would enable them move from their current poor income levels to a more improved one.
The training process focused on use of the Warehouse Receipt system (WRS) to obtain standardised market prices, which is being spearheaded by the Ghana Commodity Exchange (GCX) that go through a process of providing price references to enable farmers take decisions on whether to sell or not on produce lodged at the warehouse.
Various rules that prescribe the responsibilities of farmers, traders and the WRS include; ensuring presentation of premium quality grains to qualify for best product grading, observance of appropriate moisture content of produce to avoid spoilage.
