100 Exhibitors and over 1000 participants have so far registered to be part of this year’s 11th Annual Pre-harvest Agribusiness Exhibitions and Conference, organized by Agrihouse Foundation.
The 3-days market linkage event is slated to open in Tamale, in the Northern Region, at the Aliu Mahama Sports Stadium, on Tuesday, 19 October to Thursday, 22 October.
This year, the Agribusiness Conference and Exhibitions is on the theme, Working Together to Improve Market Channels for Agri-foods Beyond the Pandemic,” and is in-collaboration with the Northern Regional Coordinating Council and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture;
Sponsors of the event are YARA Ghana, Ecobank, World Food Program (WFP), Agricultural Development Bank (ADB), United Fertilizer Company Limited (UFCL), GIZ MOAP, Demeter Ghana Limited and HD PLUS.
Annually, Pre-harvest Conference and Exhibitions, brings together private and public stakeholders within the agricultural industry; to dialogue and find sustainable solutions to pertinent issues surrounding the agric sector, whiles providing a platform for exhibitions, field demonstrations and practical training and capacity building workshops for participants and exhibitors.
Since its inception in 2010, the event has grown to become an Award Winning Market linkage event and the leading Agribusiness platform in the country. In 2020, the event recorded a total of 3,122 participants and 122 exhibitors including farmers, traders, commodity brokers, input companies, machinery and equipment providers, transporters, financial institutions, ICT, Innovations, Poultry and Livestock companies, packaging and processing companies, development practitioners and government agencies, among others.
In a release, Executive Director of Agrihouse Foundation, Alberta Nana Ayaa Akosa, noted that this year’s event will highlight and address the challenges COVID-19 pandemic has intensified within the agric sector, the effects it has posed on marketing Agri-foods, while exploring existing market channels to address these challenges.
The event will also make room for sessions including, Commodity-Breakout Sessions, Showcasing Successful Agribusiness Modules, Gender Roundtable Workshop, Agri-Youth Forum, Development Partners Panel Conversations, Exhibitions and Farmer-Buyer Matchmaking Sessions, aimed at enabling farmers and agribusinesses negotiate and sign deals.
Another key highlight of the event will be the Field demonstrations, where farmers and actors get to practically learn, appreciate and adopt best practices in Farm Management.
This will take place at the Agrihouse Foundation AGRI-VILLAGE, a Ten (10) acre land, donated by the Bamvim Lana (Chief of Bamvim). Companies leading various Training sessions will setup mini-demonstration fields for a more engaging practical session.
YARA will be leading key Commodity Breakout sessions with rice, maize, yam, soyabean, sorghum, millet, cashew and vegetable farmers. Yara will also lead practical Training and Capacity Building sessions, whiles sharing success stories on modules and solutions that have worked.
The Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) will be leading a commodity Break-out session, Training and capacity building session and an Agri-Financing Dialogue, aimed at exposing farmers, value chain actors and stakeholders on innovative funding schemes, whiles strengthening actors with resilient building strategies for Agribusiness success and sustainability, beyond the pandemic.
The United Fertilizers Company Limited (UFCL) will be facilitating a Field Demonstration and a Capacity Building session; with a key objective to support farmers and value chain actors in adopting reliable practices and appropriate application modules, that guarantee them maximum yield during harvest.
About Pre-Harvest Agribusiness Conference & Exhibitions
Now in its 11th year, the Pre-harvest Annual Exhibitions and Conference has become one of the leading and highly impactful interventional events on the Ghanaian Agribusiness calendar.
It won the Agribusiness event of the Year in 2018. The event promotes business Partnerships among value chain actors, especially farmers, buyers, processors, transporters, input dealers, equipment dealers, financial institutions, telecom companies and policy makers.
It also seeks to accelerate the transformation of agribusiness in Northern Ghana with the Government’s initiatives, a strong drive by agro-processors to source raw materials locally, a growing band of agribusiness entrepreneurs, and lessons from development Partner interventions.
The event also aims to get the Agribusiness sector to influence transformation, with the heightened focus on public-private Partnerships, investment opportunities and creating an action-driven blueprint for an increasingly sustainable agricultural movement.
Started in October 2010 in Tamale in the Northern Region, by the USAID ADVANCE, the Annual Pre-harvest Agribusiness Exhibitions and Conference event, was handed over to Agrihouse Foundation, in 2018, in an effort to scale the event up and to allow for more public and Private sector participation. The handing over was also to allow for further growth, sustainability and expansion.
Since the handing over in 2018, Agrihouse Foundation, together with Partners have steadily grown the platform, from a day’s event, to a 3-day event. The Farmer, private, public and stakeholder participation has also increased significantly over the last 3years, making huge impacts, through market linkages, trainings, demonstrations and other capacity building sessions.
The agribusiness exhibitions and conference event has since its inception continuously and consistently scaled-up accessibility to market and strengthened the value chain of agribusinesses in the country. It is currently the only event in the country’s agricultural space that enables ready market for farmers and agribusinesses.
