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Now in its 11th year, the annual forum for agribusinesses in Ghana has enjoyed tremendous support from YARA over the period.
Having established itself as an ever-present partner of the Annual pre-harvest conference, Yara is always at the fore-front of championing initiatives that have proven vital to the growth and development of agriculture in Ghana.
Besides its partnership efforts, Yara is noted for outdooring brilliant agric concepts of its own that have shown great worth in the crusade to position the agric sector for greatness.
The West African Regional Director of YARA, Mr. Danquah Addo-Yobo has thus reaffirmed YARA’s commitment to the Annual Pre-harvest Agribusiness Conference and Exhibitions Event again this year, with an emphasis on the need for long-term partnerships.
He said YARA has been a part of the eleven years journey and success story of the 3-days leading market linkage event, since its inception in 2010, when it was designed and facilitated by USAID ADVANCE as a day’s event, in Tamale. The organization handed the project to Agrihouse Foundation when it wrapped up its work in the country in 2018.
“Pre-harvest started with about 2oo participants. Today it has grown into participants of over 3000. 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 been a significant platform; it’s not just an event,” he stated.
According to him, the platform has successful lasted for eleven years because of strong value chain partnerships, and has 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 emphasized in an interview, “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 no 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 remains one YARA’s success stories in the agric sector.
This year, YARA would 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.
Over the last decade, Yara has been at the fore-front of revolutionizing the fertilizer industry in Ghana by introducing its Crop Nutrition Concept which focuses on crop knowledge, portfolio combinations and application competence. These three pillars are key in helping Ghanaian farmers optimize profitability in a sustainable manner instead of the blanket application of fertilizers which had hitherto been the practice.
For her part, Executive Director of Agrihouse Foundation, Alberta Nana Akyaa Akosa, said the theme for this year’s event is, “Working Together to Improve Market Channels for Agri-foods Beyond the Pandemic,” and will take place at the Aliu Mahama Sports Stadium, in Tamale in the Northern region, from Tuesday, October 19 to Thursday, October 21.
She said, The three (3) days leading Agribusiness market linkage conference and exhibitions event, will as part of the Training and Capacity session, highlight and address the a challenges the COVID-19 pandemic has intensified within the 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 a farmer-buyer platform, where farmers of various commodities, including Maize, rice, milliet, sorghum, soyabeans, cowpea, cashew, shea, etc, meet, 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. This will take place at the Agrihouse Foundation AGRI-VILLAGE, a Ten (10) acre land, donated by the Bamvim Lana (Chief of Bamvim). It is expected that, Companies leading various Training sessions, will setup mini-demonstration fields for a more engaging practical session.
This year, Pre-harvest Agribusiness Conference and Exhibitions is 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).
