Grains Council ups effort to reduce post-harvest losses
The Ghana Grains Council (GGC) has signaled its determination to work with farmers to substantially reduce post-harvest loses to boost the farmer’s income.
Madam Victoria Norgbey, the Board Chair, said everything would be done to aid the farmer and aggregators to adopt improved post-harvesting techniques – threshing, drying, storage and warehousing.
She described as worrying the situation where the nation was losing an average of 25 per cent of food crop harvest through poor post-harvest handling.
Addressing the maiden Southern Ghana pre-harvest agribusiness in Kumasi, she said the waste could not continue.
The fair was jointly organized by the GGC and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) – Agricultural Development and Value Chain Enhancement (ADVANCE) Project to provide the platform for key players in the value chain to build strong partnerships.
Madam Norgbey said the Council was working with its partners to improve the quality of grains produced to influence prices by strengthening the bargaining power of the farmer.
She noted that quality grain products would not only improve the nutritional value, but increase household incomes and enhance the purchasing power of farmers.
Dr. Emmanuel Dormon, Chief of Party, USAID – ADVANCE Project, said the goal of the four-year project, which would be ending in 2018, was to improve the competiveness of the maize, rice and soybean value chain.
It had targeted to increase the incomes of about 113,000 smallholder farmers and that it was currently training 40,000 farmers on quality standards – maize and soybeans.
Dr. Barfour Osei, Chief Executive Officer of Export Development and Agricultural Investment Fund (EDAIF), in an address read for him, said the fund was currently piloting a special loan facility to aid growth of eligible businesses operating in the export trade, agricultural and industrial sectors.
The “EDAIF interest free loans” are being disbursed through the UT bank.
Source: GNA