Farming has been and continues to be a pivotal economic activity in Ghana, employing about 50% of the Ghanaian population. But access to credit, markets, quality seeds, fertilizer, and other inputs has always been a problem for smallholder farmers in Ghana.
African farmer-centered organization, AGRA, with funding from the United States Aid Agency (USAID), has been working over the years under the Partnership for Inclusive Agriculture Transformation in Africa (PIATA) initiative, to support Ghanaian farmers deal with these challenges and improve food security.
PIATA was launched in 2017 as a strategy for transforming agricultural systems through integrated delivery across economic zones and value chains.
Last week, stakeholders held a learning event on the initiative. The objective of this learning event was to share key insights from the implementation of the USAID-AGRA PIATA initiative so far in Ghana.
The learning event brought in more than 70 key stakeholders from government agencies, academia, and the private sector, to discuss access to quality seeds and fertilizer in Ghana.
The event provided the opportunity for key stakeholders and partners to share impact stories, and best practices, and offer feedback to improve future interventions.
Speaking at the learning event, the chief executive officer of the Ghana Chamber of Agribusiness, Anthony S.K. Morrison said access to timely and reliable data is crucial for decision-making on food systems, especially in the face of a changing global climate and emerging threats.
“We also know that current data on agriculture and food systems in Ghana is segregated. If Ghana wants to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 2 on eradicating hunger, then players in the sector must start sharing ideas or data among themselves,” he said.
“Anywhere agriculture has developed in the world, you will need an excellent capacity-building policy,” he said.
Regina Richardson, programme officer for AGRA said the organisation had over the last five years focused on increasing farmers’ access to and the adoption of quality seeds and fertilizers. “AGRA is helping to create the enabling environment for private sector participation in the agriculture sector and improved access to quality inputs and data,” she said.
“Key results of the PIATA programme include facilitating the digitisation process of fertilizer registration and control process, assisting 130,000 smallholder farmers to access 8000 metric tonnes of certified seeds, and producing 16.6 metric tonnes of breeder seed and 236 metric tonnes of foundation seeds, amounting to some 3% of national foundation seeds,” she added. “We have also worked with households, particularly women to support them with home gardening facilities to enable them to produce household vegetable gardening to make additional income and improve nutrition at the household level,” the programme officer added.
Mr. Yaw Frimpong Addo, deputy Minister for Food and Agriculture observed that budgetary allocation to the agriculture sector is insignificant and should be boosted.
“There’s so much to do at the ministry that the budgetary allocations by government alone cannot let us achieve whatever objectives we set. That is why we continually rely on donor partners such as USAID and AGRA that have consistently funded policy initiatives in Ghana’s agriculture,” he said.
“We are very grateful to USAID and AGRA; we all know that agriculture starts from policy formulation and the private sector and donor partners play a critical role at the core of the procedure hence, my call for more support,” Mr. Frimpong Addo added.
Ben Kemetse, chief executive officer of M&B Seeds & Agricultural Services used the opportunity to thank USAID-AGRA PIATA team for the support.
“As a breeder, the USAID –AGRA project opened our eyes to how and what variety of seeds or fertilizers is favorable for our smallholder farmers. I strongly agree that smallholder farmer’s lives will improve with better policies from USAID –AGRA,” he said.
“We thank them for ensuring that farmers have access to improved quality seeds of diversified varieties and fertilizer which has always been a problem for smallholder farmers in Ghana,” he added.
By Nana Yaw Reuben
