Poor market infrastructure; bane of agric sector — Agri Impact Consult boss
Agri Impact Consult is a wholly owned company providing agribusiness technologies to boost production in the agriculture sector. The Executive Director of the company, Mr Dan Acquaye (DA), shared some perspectives with Jessica Acheampong.
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GB: What is the core line of business at Agri Impact consult?
DA: Agri Impact Consult is a private company and its aim is to provide distinctive agribusiness services and innovative solutions to agribusiness firms and value chain actors. We do consultancy work, value chain training and we are also involved in greenhouse productions, incubation mentorship as well as agribusiness market assessment plans.
We provide services in more than 28 countries for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), GIZ, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and some multinational agribusiness firms.
We have a range of clients and we also do training for farmer-based organisations.
GB: When did the company start operating?
DA: Agri Impact came out of an organisation known as Agribusiness in Sustainable Natural African Plant Product (ASNAP), which is an international non-governmental organisation (NGO). We officially commenced operations in 2011. It is a 100 per cent Ghanaian-owned company.
GB: Being a player in the sector, what is your assessment of the agriculture sector in Ghana?
DA: Let me pick it from Africa then come to Ghana. In Africa, particularly in West Africa, agriculture is the least productive sub-sector. Anytime you want to look at yields of products you find West African countries at the bottom. Anytime you want to look at productivity indices, West Africa is the least, productivity is low, yields are so low, but the post-harvest losses are so high. Our cost of production is so high and our value chain systems are so weak. This is not only in West Africa but it also pertains to Ghana.
For Ghana, let us look at the horticultural sector; there were times we were doing very well, Non-Traditional Exports (NTEs) of agriculture commodities were so high, I understand that it has dropped drastically including export of pineapples, vegetables, pawpaw. I think the one that is doing well is banana and we have been able to increase its export by over 500 per cent but besides banana, all the other horticultural products are suffering.
If you look at mango, the story is not different from pineapples and pawpaw. On the export front, Ghana has not been doing well lately; we heard the ban of exports of vegetables to the EU market, which is also another setback to operators in the sector.
Ghana is the second largest importer of tomato paste in the world, and how long does it take to grow this tomato? Our productivity in tomato is so bad that at times it doesn’t make it profitable for the local agro-processing firm to go into it, because the fresh fruits are so expensive and they therefore cannot compete with the imported ones.
GB: In your opinion, what accounts for the high level of agricultural imports in the country?
DA: There are several reasons for this, one is we do not adopt good agricultural practices, and because of this we don’t get the best yield and productivity. Secondly, we don’t use the value chain approach, so there could be funding geared towards production, but no funding towards market infrastructure.
I think one of the saddest things we see in the agriculture sector is the poor market infrastructure for agricultural products. Tell me which market in Ghana, you will go and find a place where fruits and vegetables are sold on raised platforms, or which market will you go and find a cold store not for fish but for vegetables. So the farmer can produce, adopt all the agronomic practices, but go to Agbogbloshie and see how fruits and vegetables are handled.
GB: What then is the way forward for the sector?
DA: I think one of the things government has to do is what I call the Commodity Economic Zone model, if you take this model I will use Nkoranza, Kintampo and Ejura to illustrate. These are one of the highest maize production areas in Ghana. Sometimes the maize production of one district can be higher than the total maize production in the whole Volta Region.
So in terms of commodities, Nkoranza, Kintampo and Ejura will be an economic zone for maize. We need to do this to empower the people and increase productivity in these areas, because if you declare these areas as economic zones, then we can look at tractor systems, mechanised services, storage facilities as well as the market infrastructure in that area.
GB: What are some of your ongoing projects?
DA: We have an agribusiness training centre in Berekuso in the Eastern Region, where we offer greenhouse production training, agribusiness entrepreneurship training, value chain training and we target the youth especially those who have completed school and are looking for businesses to do. At that same place, we are not only training but we are also producing fresh vegetables that we supply to supermarkets in Accra.
GB: Tell us about your CASH project.
DA: Cash P is a project concept that we have developed, the CASH itself means Commercial Agriculture for Smallholders project and the essence is to bring cash to the people. And how do we do this, through productivity enhancement measures.
We also train them to engage in profitable value chain systems and providing entire value chain services, right from input supply up to the market, and the last is changing the mindset of smallholder producers and making them think commercial, think business and think profitable.
GB: Please give a brief profile about yourself and some values you hold dear.
DA: My name is Dan Acquaye, I had my first degree in agronomy from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in 1994. I did an executive MBA in Project Management at the University of Ghana in 2004.
I have been in the agribusiness industry for the past 18 years, and I have worked in 28 African countries. The first thing I do is the design of agric projects, I also do a lot of market assessment in a lot of African countries and international agencies and private companies.
I have served as a consultant for UNDP, GIZ, USAID, and I have conducted a number of training programmes for the East African Communities (EAC).
For me the first thing I never play with is honesty, if you are honest you will go far, so I don’t joke with that. The second thing I tell myself is that whatever field you find yourself make sure you excel. I like excellence so mediocrity is not part of me. — GB
Writer’s email: [email protected]