Business

More value chain partnerships needed ahead of Pre-harvest agribusiness confab–YARA

Yara Ghana has again put its weight behind the Pre-harvest Agribusiness Conference to stimulate the growth of the sector.

The West African Regional Director of YARA, Mr Danquah Addo-Yobo has thus reaffirmed YARA’s commitment to the annual event this year, with an emphasis on the need for long-term partnerships.

Now in its 11th year, the annual forum for agribusinesses in Ghana has enjoyed tremendous support from YARA over the period.

He said YARA had been a part of the eleven years journey and success story of the 3-day leading market linkage event, since its inception in 2010.

“Pre-harvest started with about 200 participants. Today it has grown into participants of over 3,000. What that means is that, a lot more partners are coming in; we are increasingly seeing farmers, aggregators, industry players, policy makers, financial institutions and the markets that demand the products. Pre-harvest has been a significant platform; it’s not just an event,” he stated.

According to him, the platform had successfully lasted for eleven years because of strong value-chain partnerships, and had therefore called for more of such collaborations among stakeholders in the country’s agricultural sector.

“We need to continue driving sustainable farming,” Mr Addo-Yobo emphasised in an interview in Accra yesterday.

 “The world is changing and we need to ensure sustainability in our agricultural sector. It is critical. We also need to find partners who think long-term sustainability and not just short-term opportunities, to make business,” he stressed.

He said YARA would continue to sponsor and support the Pre-harvest Event to achieve more measurable impacts, as it remained one of YARA’s success stories in the agricultural sector.

This year, YARA will be leading key commodity breakout sessions with rice, maize, yam, soyabean, sorghum, millet, cashew and vegetable farmers. Yara will also lead practical capacity building, and field demonstration sessions, whiles sharing success stories on modules and solutions that have worked.

“This year, we also have launched a digital farming space, something we call farm weather; which allows farmers to closely predict weather conditions. We expect that, we will be able to showcase this more during the event,” he revealed.

Executive Director of Agrihouse Foundation, Alberta Nana Akyaa Akosa, said this year’s event on theme, “Working Together to Improve Market Channels for Agri-foods Beyond the Pandemic,” will take place at the Aliu Mahama Sports Stadium, in Tamale in the Northern Region, from October 19 to 21.

She said, the three-day event, would highlight and address the challenges brought by the  COVID-19 pandemic which affected the sector.

The event, she said would also make room, for a farmer-buyer platform, where farmers of various commodities, including Maize, rice, millet, sorghum, soya beans, cowpea, cashew, shea, among others meet to negotiate and sign supply deals with buyers.

“Another key highlight of the 3-day event will be the field demonstrations, where farmers and actors get to practically learn, appreciate and adopt best practices in farm management,” she said.

The event is being sponsored by, YARA, Ecobank, World Food Programme (WFP), Agricultural Development Bank (ADB), Demeter, GIZ MOAP, United Fertilizer Company Limited (UFCL) and HD PLUS. Collaborating institutions are the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), and the Northern Regional Coordinating Council (NRCC).

BY KINGSLEY ASARE

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