Ghana held the 12th Pre-Harvest Conference, Exhibition in Tamale. With a theme “Connecting the Unconnected” the event brought together over 3000 Farmers of Maize, rice, soyabean, sorghum, cowpea, groundnut, cashew, vegetables, Livestock and value chain actors within the agricultural sector, to discuss the production demands, pricing, innovative approaches to boosting farm yields and introduce new Agric Technologies, for development and advancement.
The Preharvest platform, also directly allows, over 70% of participants, take decisive and influential roles, in purchasing of products, inputs and equipment, through the Exhibitions that run alongside, the three (3) day event.
Event preview
Agrihouse Foundation Agri-Village Training, Apprenticeship and Demonstration Centre in Bamvim will hosted the series of technical and demonstration sessions that took place; while the Aliu Mahama sports Stadium in Tamale, was the grounds for the grand Exhibition and Capacity building sessions.
Over 212 FBO leaders, Farm Associations, outgrowers of rice, soyabean, sorghum, maize and vegetables participated in the sessions; which in various previous editions have been led by companies including, Yara Ghana, GIZ, Demeter, UCFL, TECAS, Farm more Company Ltd/N-Drip Irrigation, among others.
Other capacity building sessions and activities, that took place during the three day event, included the Commodity Breakout session, which is more of a marketplace, where farmers of various commodities, including Maize, rice, millet, sorghum, soyabeans, cowpea, yaw and tubers, vegetables, groundnut, cowpeas, cashew, shea, among others, meet in groups. Facilitators lead the discussions, through training, capacity building sessions and role plays, production, produce contract deals and negotiations. They also discussed the expected market demands, expected market pricing and markets accessibility.
The Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) Yaw Frimpong Addo has commended Agrihouse Foundation for providing a real platform for effective communication of their plans and programmes through the existence of the event. He said the existence of Agrihouse Foundation over the years contributed immensely to the Ghanaian system of agriculture by eliminating cultural barriers such as gender biases, insecurity and seasonal farming. This according to him set the agenda to reap the full potential of Agriculture by transforming and giving meaning of practical expression to agriculture to the Ghanaian farmer.
