Agrihouse Foundation launches 12th pre-harvest agribusiness exhibition
A non-governmental agricultural capacity building and innovation organisation, Agrihouse Foundation, has launched the 12th Annual Pre-harvest Agribusiness Exhibition and Conference.
Slated for Tuesday, October 25, 2022, to Thursday, October 27, 2022, this year’s edition is dubbed: “Connecting the unconnected — the farmer, the buyer and the market”.
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The event, which is in partnership with the Northern Regional Coordinating Council (NRCC) and an agrochemicals manufacturer known as Yara, will take place at the Aliu Mahama Sports Stadium in Tamale and the Agrihouse Foundation Agri-village in Bamvim, both in the Northern Region.
The three-day agribusiness market linkage conference and exhibitions event is, therefore, expected to attract about 4,000 participants across the agricultural value chain, including seed suppliers, farmers, traders, processors, transporters, wholesalers, retailers and final consumers.
It will offer training and capacity sessions for farmers while creating the space for a farmer-buyer platform, where farmers of various commodities — including maize, rice, millet, sorghum, soybeans, cowpea, cashew, shea and meat — negotiate and sign supply deals with buyers.
There will also be field demonstrations, where farmers and actors will get to practically learn, appreciate and adopt best practices in farm management.
Goals
At the launch in Accra last Wednesday, the Founder and Executive Director of the foundation, Alberta Nana Akyaa Akosa, expressed the hope that the event would strengthen the market for farmers, particularly women.
“We are hoping to further create markets for agriculture-centred small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) across the country,” she added.
Ms Akosa was also hopeful that through the field demonstrations and farmer-to-farmer engagement sessions, participating famers would absorb and learn modern ways of farming to improve their businesses.
She, therefore, expressed her gratitude to development partners for their support, and called on individuals and organisations to participate in the event.
Significance
The Chief Director of the NRCC, Alhassan Issahaku, said the event was important because the exhibitions, over the years, had been able to highlight key issues such as harvesting and post-harvesting, which were relevant to the agricultural value chain.
These, he said, had enabled various actors like development partners, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and traditional authorities to get involved in the pre-harvest activities for the benefit of the entire country.
Mr Issahaku, therefore, urged the media to show its support by highlighting the event to boost patronage and get all stakeholders to get involved.
“Let’s remember that if agriculture fails in the north, it does not only affect the north; it affects the whole country,” he added.
Contribution
The Digital Solutions Manager of Yara Ghana, Kwame Okyere, said as an input company, the mission of Agrihouse to link farmers to buyers and the market as a whole was essential to the company’s overall goal.
He also said that the company contributed to the agricultural value chain by routinely deploying agronomists who were tasked to engage farmers to educate them in good agronomic practices.
“Yara has a farmer-centric approach, so we believe in being in touch with the farmer at a very basic level,” Mr Okyere added.