The award component of the first ever Women in Food and Agriculture Leadership Forum and Expo, dubbed Gold in the soil awards has received fifty (50) applications since nominations opened .

Billed under the theme: Women! Key Partners in Shaping Agribusiness, The two (2) day event is set to take place from Wednesday, June 12^th -Thursday, June 13^th, 2019 at the Stevens Hotel, Ho, Volta Region.

 

According to the organisers, the conceptual undertone for the project will focus on equipping agric-industry women with the capacity to improve production output. It will also access the impact women have, in shaping and directing the conversation on production, processing and marketing, policies. Intended to acknowledge pioneers and innovators who push the boundaries across the agribusiness value chain, the initiative will also seek to recognize and reward outstanding women who exemplify the can-do spirit of the Ghanaian.

 

The fourteen (14) award categories for nominations includes; Passion for the Farm Awards, She-innovates Award, The Super Woman Award, Climate-Smart Women Project Award, Woman in Extension Services Award, Star in Ag Award (Woman Agripreneur Award), Royal Agro Award (Queen mothers), Diamond in the rough award, Feed to Food Award, The Change Champion Award, Lady of the Region Export Award, Development Partner Award, Princess Carla Award and Gold in the Soil Award.

 

So far, fifty (50) nomination forms have been received from women across the country who are playing key roles in-line with the above listed award categories. About 80% are from the Volta region, the host region of the event. The ‘Gold in the Soil Award’ category has the most nomination. It has 40 nominations out of the 14 categories, and the other 10 nominations cuts across the other categories and regions.

 

The Executive Director of Agrihouse Foundation, Miss Alberta Nana Akyaa Akosa expressed optimism that the time was right for the unsung heroes of agric to take centre stage.

  “we are glad to see how women in Agriculture nationwide and especially those in the Volta Region have embraced the 2019 WOFAGRIC event and are showing extreme interest and enthusiasm for the Gold in the Soil Awards. This is an indication that the WOFAGRIC/ Gold in the Soil Awards would become a sustainable platform for women in Agriculture to have a share of voice, ideas, train, and empower each other, discuss issues pertinent to women in the industry, promote by showcasing through exhibitions, the works, products and services of the Women in the Agricultural space. It is our sincere hope to scale it up yearly as it moves to other regions. “She stated.

The Women in Food and Agriculture leadership Forum and Expo/ Gold in the Soil Awards is an Agrihouse initiative designed in partnership with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Women In Agric Development (WIAD), National Farmers and Fishermen Award Winners Association of Ghana (NFFAWAG) and the Volta Regional Coordinating Council.

Other activities lined up for the  2-day event include; panel discussions, training programs, mentorship dialogue, presentations, empowerment talk, mentor pair –up, exhibition and workshop.

In a statement, Chairman of the National Farmers and Fishermen Award Winners Association (NFFAWAG) Mr. Davies Naah Korboe, said, the initiative will spur more women to strive for excellence in the industry.

“It is expected that the  ‘Gold in the Soil Awards would play a key role in projecting women who excel in the Agricultural space and pay tribute to the efforts and contributions by these women, young female ‘agripreneurs’, female students and women with disabilities for their roles towards ensuring food security, poverty alleviation, employment creation and ultimately helping the economy.”

Through the Gold in the Soil Awards and documentary, more light would be thrown on activities on women in the agric space, which would motivate other women to see role models in these accomplished ‘womenpreneurs’. This would spur them on to do more and serve as a challenge to others. In the long run, more women would be in the agric space helping create more employment.

WOFAGRIC 2019 purely focuses on building the capacity of Women-owned Smallholder agribusiness by showcasing their exhibitions, works, products and services .The event is expected to move to a different region every year, so all women can embrace and take advantage of the platform.

The success of agriculture is often attributed to the efforts of government’s policies and other interventions which are intermittently rolled-out.

In Ghana, history is strewn with numerous interventions that have at one stage or the other been considered potent enough to help propel the agric sector’s growth. In keeping with this trend, the current administration has initiated the much publicized ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’ which appears to be yielding positive fruits since its inception.

While the government’s role is too crucial to be missed by anyone taking the slightest peek at the agric sector, the contribution of other stakeholders particularly, corporate Ghana is colossal to say the least.

Indigenous Ghanaian companies and others with foreign roots have through various interventions, made significant contributions that have both complemented governments effort and improved the lot of agric in the country.

One of such shining examples is Kosmos Energy Ghana. The oil and gas giant has through its ‘Kosmos Innovation Centre’ initiative given a new lease of life to agriculture. Having conceived the idea as a means of contributing to the growth of society, the company has since 2016, nurtured and funded the establishment of several enterprises, while several other start-ups have benefitted greatly from the ‘Kosmos Incubation Programme’.

Business booster module

The business booster module was birthed in 2017 to aid the growth of innovative SMEs and help propel such enterprises to greater heights. The module was designed to engage indigenous agricultural enterprises that had been in business for no less than three years.

The programme involves mentoring support, a boot camp and an exposure to other seasoned businesses that have the capacity and willingness to lend a hand of support in the form of funding and expert advice. Having initially selected nine businesses out of a pool of 170 applicants, the beneficiary set-ups were taken through a one-on-one capacity building period that helped beneficiaries appreciate the need to identify and surmount challenges in the business sphere.

Following a liberal feedback of positive words on the impact of the programme, the maiden edition came to an end in April 2018, with a promise to start another session soon.

Beneficiary businesses who participated in Business Booster module included:

• Tilly farm-produces and processes pork and related products for a wide variety of clients across the country
• Solution Oasis-produces and markets quality natural skin-care products for the Ghanaian beauty and cosmetic market
• Contrapac-extracts natural virgin oil from tropical vegetable oils
• GEES Fresh Point-guinea fowl processing company
• Moringa connect –processes moringa leaves into delicious beverages
• Moringa king- beverage processing and marketing entity
• Meannan Foods-produces and packages food
• Seidag- supplier of beef products

The  Kosmos Innovation Centre has a commitment to innovative agriculture and has demonstrated this by mentoring and supporting business that have been built to provide simple, yet innovative solutions for the local agric sector. The company believes that the future of agriculture is technology and has therefore taken a keen interest in young start-ups that believe in the potential of using technology to rapidly advance agriculture. Consequently the company has extended generous support to agric-inclined businesses like Agrocentre,Agroseal, Rent -a –Farm, Trotro Tractor etc.

Among the milestones achieved by the Kosmos Innovation Centre is the successful funding and mentorship of inspiring indigenous businesses who went on to win AgriTech Challenge in 2016 and 2017.Refreshingly ,these companies are now budding entities that are making inroads in the Ghanaian business space.

 

Profile of some KIC beneficiary businesses

Ghalani

Ghalani is business enterprise that comprises a farm and supply chain management services. With innovative farm management software that aids agriculture aggregators who are always challenged by the need to engage numerous farmers at the same time, the service easily guarantees productivity and mitigate risk .Currently, the firm is in advanced interactions with the German Development Agency to partner their efforts to achieve its core mandate of optimum farmer performance.

AgroInnova

AgroInnova is a web-based management system designed to help poultry enterprises record and keep tabs on operations to ensure optimum performance and guarantee productivity. The company’s chief product ‘AKOKOTAKRA’ is gaining increased prominence among poultry farmers who claim that the software’s ability to provide accurate and real-time information enhances their operations significantly.

With an egg distribution system that is set to connect distributors to retailers, the company appears to be inching closer to becoming an indispensable service provider for the countries teeming poultry farming community.

Trotro Tractor Limited

This excitingly innovative business has developed an electronic platform that uses mobile phone and GPS to connect farmers to tractor operators- two essential agric partners who hitherto had  challenges accessing each other .The service has come as a relieve to both parties as it allows request placement, appointment scheduling and pay –before-service tractor operations.

Having received commendation and reviews from several quarters for its business direction, the company has recently been considered by the Alliance for a New Revolution in Africa (AGRA) under the financial inclusion for Small-holder farmers in Africa project (FISFAR), to help roll out the small-holder agricultural mechanization in the Brong Ahafo, Northern, Upper East and Upper west regions of Ghana.

Despite only recently being established, Totro Tractor has engage about 17,000 farmers with 3,700 of that number actively benefiting from the service of 300 tractor operators who are signed on to the service.

Anitrack

Another innovative venture from the stables of KIC, this business is weaved around the use of RFID technology to assess the wellbeing or otherwise of individual livestock. Also, a second aspect of the company’s service known as Animartt is designed to bring sellers and buyers of livestock to a single and secure online trading platform for the purposes of transacting business seamlessly.

The company has received positive reviews since preliminary trials began and industry observers are full of expectation for the company’s potential to become a solid partner for livestock farmers in the country.

Complete Farmer

Built with the mandate to provide farmers with real-time update on happenings in and around their farms, complete farmer enjoys the funding of Premium Bank Ghana.

With an effectual surveillance update on farms, the services provided by this firm have been touted by many as a huge incentive for white collar employees in other sectors who have a desire to engage in some agric venture side-by-side their full time engagement.

QualiTrace

This business relies on a mobile validation mechanism to help farmers and consumers identity genuine farm inputs and quality food produce, thereby shutting the door on fake and substandard products.

Through this quality control system, the loss of 1.5 trillion USD usually recorded as a result of the proliferation of fake agricultural input is slowly but surely inching close to becoming a thing of the past. The company has recorded significant successes since its inception by recording 523 successful certification of field-work in collaboration with farmers and retailers. The company is also said to be in talks with sustainable partners including the Westerwelle Foundation and the Suhum Farmers Association. A recent grant of $5000 from the Tony Enemelu Foundation is both a testament of the company’s attractiveness and relevance.

 Conclusion

Indeed the responsibility to make our agric sector great is a collective one that should be shared by government and thriving firms in the country. The monumental significance of agriculture and the chief role it plays in keeping our economy alight and alive means every effort geared towards improving agriculture must be a concern for all–and-sundry.

The local economy is akin to a boat with the government and  private sector players aboard –it is the collective responsibility of both to pedal this boat towards prosperity-and agric presents a huge opportunity to massively pedal a ‘boat’ that is bound to generously reward government and private sector alike should both show commensurate commitment through deepened support for agriculture.

A ten (10)Planning Team has been officially inaugurated at the World Food Program offices, in Accra, to offer technical advice and support, in the planning and organization of the 8^th Annual Pre-harvest Agribusiness Exhibitions and Conference, to be held from the 3-5 October, 2018 at the Aliu Mahama Sports Stadium, Tamale, Northern Region

The committee comprises representatives of private companies sponsoring the 8^th 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 8^th 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 8^th 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 8^th 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.

The Ghana Poultry Project (GPP), Assist Management in Poultry Layer Industry by Feed Improvement and Efficiency Strategy (AMPLIFIES) and Ghana National Association of Poultry Farmers (GNAPF) wish to collaborate with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) to organize the next Poultry Value Chain Fair (PVCF) in Sunyani in March, 2018.

GPP in March 2017 worked with GNAPF and AMPLIFIES to organize the first Poultry Value Chain Fair (PVCF) in the country. GPP and AMPLIFIES intend working with GNAPF to organize another PVCF in March, 2018 in Sunyani. This time around, the parties wish to involve MoFA in the organization of the event which is to have some foreign exhibitors / participants in addition to Ghanaian exhibitors.

The Ghana Poultry Project (GPP) is a five-year initiative funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food for Progress Program (FFPr) and implemented by ACDI/VOCA and TechnoServe with the goal to increase the competitiveness of the domestic production and processing of poultry meat and eggs.

GPP works in the following three selected regions and their respective districts of Ghana:

1. Brong Ahafo (Dormaa, Sunyani, Techiman, Wenchi, Nkoranza and Berekum)
2. Ashanti region (Ejura Sekyeredumasi, Atwima Nwabiagya, Atwima Kwanwoman, Ejisu Juabeng, Ofinso North, Ofinso South, Kumasi Metro)
3. Greater Accra (Accra Metro, Ga South, Ga East, Tema, Ada West and Dangbe East)

The two Strategic Objectives of GPP in line with the goals of USDA are:

1. Increase agriculture productivity in the poultry value chain through capacity building, improving input markets, promoting strategic investments and private-public partnerships.
2. Increase the trade of poultry products by improving product quality, increasing production efficiency, and improving market linkages.

The intervention by USDA is to address the non-competitiveness of Ghana’s poultry sector, resulting mainly from high production costs due to high cost of inputs and limited supply/availability of quality inputs.

GPP and AMPLIFIES would support the organization of marketing and commercial forums for buyers and sellers of poultry products and inputs to enable them to define supply needs and potential contracting opportunities. At the supply level, these encounters would connect poultry farms with nucleus farmers who are into maize and soya production. At the output level, GPP will connect poultry farms with cold stores, supermarkets, hotels, restaurants, etc. The fair would allow buyers and sellers to make initial contacts, and present their supply chain requirements, including supply needs, product specifications (quality/price), and required delivery schedules.

 

Objectives of the PVCF:

1. Create sustainable market linkages between the Poultry Value Chain (PVC) actors at both the supply and demand ends
2. Provide poultry farmers with access to relatively cheaper / quality sources of inputs which would result in the reduction of their production cost.

Relevance of the PVCF:

The PVCF seeks to address the under listed constraints within the PVC:

1. Lack of processing and preservation techniques for the extended storage life of eggs and poultry meat and for innovative value-added poultry products
2. Non-availability of quality feed
3. High cost of poultry pharmaceuticals (generally in the hands of the private sector) and lack of disease control facilities.
4. Lack of access to markets for poultry products by farmers in the country
5. Poor quality and safety of finished poultry products (eg. Packaging, standards)

Benefits of the PVCF:

It is expected that at the end of the event,

1. Poultry producers and input dealers would have access to new markets where they could sell their products
2. Participants would have direct supply of poultry products and inputs at relatively cheaper price
3. Participants would have an increased / improved network within which to operate

Expected Duration and activities of PVCF

The PVCF is expected to be held on the 21^st and 22^nd of March, 2018. Main activities for the event would include seminar presentations, an exhibition and a food bazaar. GNAPF, GPP, AMPLIFIES and MoFA as well as other relevant partners would be the major collaborators at the fair. The fair is expected to host 500 participants within the poultry value chain.