Food and Agric Ministry opens workshop on maize value chain

The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) has organised a three-day workshop on maize value chain  at Winneba in the Central Region to enhance the participation of key stakeholders in the growth of the agricultural sector.

The workshop also sought to address challenges that confront the sector to ensure increased food production in the country.

Mr Yaw Effah Baafi, Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture in-charge of Crops, said the value chain was a framework that unravels the complete interaction among various actors in the creation and delivery of products and services to the market.

“It is a sequence of related business activities from the provision of specific inputs for a particular product from primary production, through the transformation and marketing for final consumption,” he added.

Mr Baafi said the value chain approach to agricultural development was important to transform and modernise the country’s smallholder agriculture for poverty reduction and increased income.

“By applying an industry approach for developing each priority value chain, Ghana can transform her agriculture to help achieve poverty reduction and growth objectivity.”

Mr Baafi noted that it was necessary to have continuous support for commodities that were essential for the growth as well as that of poor areas especially, the Northern Region.

He stated that growth could be sustained through productivity improvement with linkage to the sectors such as materials for industry, feed for livestock and transfers from lower food prices.

Source: GNA