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Ghana to increase earnings from yams

Ghana produces over six million tonnes of yam a year but only a small percentage is exported.Ghana’s yam sector has received a boost following the launch of a comprehensive strategy to enhance productivity, quality and marketing domestically and outside the country.
The strategy, the first of its kind for the sector, aims at making the country the leading source of premium quality yam and yam products in the world.

It hinges on five pillars, including increasing export of fresh yam from the current 26,000 tonnes to 400,000 tonnes in 2020; developing a market for non-food competing yam as ingredient for industry for up to 20 per cent of total yam production in the country as well as reinforcing domestic industry competitiveness by specialising production and reducing cost by 50 per cent.

The Ministry of Trade and Industry is the facilitator and co-ordinator of the strategy, which was developed after a participatory engagement with farmers, buyers, private sector actors and all stakeholders in the yam sector.

The Chief Director of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Nii Ansah-Adjaye, who launched the strategy in Accra on Tuesday on behalf of the sector minister, said the crop was very important in the socio-cultural lives of the country as it served as a staple and engaged a great number of farmers, traders and transporters.

“Today it is perhaps more significant because it has become a leading foreign exchange earning commodity. Ghana’s foreign exchange inflow from yam exports ranged between $15 million and $18 million from 2007 to 2011,” Nii Ansah-Adjaye said.

According to the International Trade Centre (ITC), a body which helped in putting together the strategy, Ghana contributed about 12 per cent to the total value of yam exported across the world between the period.

He said development of the strategy was participatory, aligned with existing policy framework at both MOTI and Ministry of Food and Agriculture and focused on demand-driven, having incorporated the views of all value chain actors within the sector.

The strategy also seeks to promote gender equality policies and support women-led business of up to 50 per cent of yam start-ups, while ensuring that yam and associated crops contribute 30 per cent increase in the income of value chain actors and food security in the country.

In order to achieve the five strategic pillars, value chain stakeholders identified six specific response objectives as priority areas of intervention to contribute to sector development and improved performance.

The drafters also want to explore product diversification by adding value and processing yam into new products such as flour, pasta and other products for use in the pharmaceutical industry.

The strategy will also work to improve access to finance across the value chain and promote commercially driven investments; develop commercially driven research and development as well as capacity building and as improve compliance with quality standards and logistics for gaining competitiveness.

Ghana produces over six million tonnes of yam a year but only a small percentage is exported.

A Deputy Minister of Agriculture in charge of Crops, Dr Ahmed Yakubu Alhassan, said the importance of yam had enabled the government to make several interventions to boost its production for food security and foreign exchange earnings.

Dr Alhassan, who is also the NDC MP for Meon, expressed satisfaction that the strategy sought to place emphasis on supporting women to grow their business and earn higher incomes, a good strategy for poverty reduction.

“This requires private sector investments in infrastructure in the yam value chain,” saying they should take advantage of the Export Development and Agric Investment Fund (EDAIF) to actively participate in the value chain.

The acting Deputy Director, Export Trade Support, MOTI, Nana Kwadwo Adentwi, who is a member of the consultative committee, said the ministry would not shelve the strategy but start with implementation immediately.

“From here, we are going to draft detailed proposals to development partners to support public-private partnerships to make investments in the value chain,” Nana Adentwi said.

By Samuel Doe Ablordeppey & Emmanuel Bruce/Daily Graphic/Ghana

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