The committee comprises representatives of private companies sponsoring the 8th pre-harvest event, development partners and government. It includes senior officials from Yara Ghana, AFGRI John Deere, Interplast, ECOBANK, World Food Programme, USAID ADVANCE Project, Agrihouse Foundation, Ministry of Food and Agriculture, and Northern Regional Coordinating Council.
This year’s pre-harvest event will be held under the theme: Agribusiness in Northern Ghana, the Future Starts Now. The event seeks to accelerate the transformation of agribusiness in Northern Ghana with the Government’s Planting for Food and Jobs programme, strong drive by agro-processors to source raw materials locally, a growing band of agribusiness entrepreneurs, and lessons from development partner interventions. It also aims to get the Agribusiness sector to influence transformation, with the heightened focus on public-private partnerships, investment opportunities and creating an action-driven blueprint for an increasingly sustainable agricultural movement.
For the first time since its inception in 2011, the 8th Preharvest Event will be held for 3 days. It is expected to attract 2000 participants and exhibitors including farmers, traders, commodity brokers, input companies, machinery and equipment providers, transporters, financial institutions, ICT, Innovations, Poultry and Livestock companies, packaging and processing companies, development practitioners and government agencies, among others. Exhibitors are expected to increase from 72 companies in 2017 to about 120 exhibitors this year.
Major event activities lined-up for the 8th Pre-harvest include Exhibitions, Dialogue and Networking Sessions, Training, Field demonstrations and Farm Tours. For the first time the scope of the event has been extended to include livestock and poultry. The top priority would be to provide the right environment for networking, learning, sharing of ideas and discussing the season’s outlook on production; identify critical policies to support competitive marketing and to establish firm marketing relationships, as well as providing solutions to the challenges and issues within agribusiness.
In expressing her appreciation to the Planning Team, Alberta Nana Akyaa Akosa, Executive Director at Agrihoue Foundation thanked members for their technical inputs and financial support for the 8th Pre-harvest event, which is by far, the largest gathering of value chain actors and agribusinesses in Northern Ghana.
The Pre-harvest event has over the last seven (7) years, been fully organized by the USAID ADVANCE project. To scale up and sustain the event, USAID ADVANCE, has handed over the organization of the event to Agrihouse Foundation with World Food Program, as organizing Partner.