Stakeholders Conference for farmers Ends at Pusu Namongo

25-07-2010 Narration: A stakeholder’s workshop aimed at building long term business linkages and commercial relationship between farmers and buyers has taken place at Pusu-Namango in the Talensi-Nabdam district of the Upper East Region. It was under a project entitled “Linking farmers to Markets (FGM)”whose main objective is to ease the flow of farm produce from the farm-gate to the markets by linking smallholder farmers to commercial buyers and processors. Correspondent Isaac Asare was at the workshop and has the rest of the story for Radio Ghana.
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The 3-year project is being funded by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and implemented by the International Center for Soil Fertility and Agricultural Development (IFDC). It brought together relevant stakeholders in the Agricultural sector as well as representatives from the various NGOs and organizations in the region. The project’s commodity which focuses on the production of rice, maize, sorghum and soybean, aims at assisting smallholder farmers particularly those in the three northern regions to identify and gain easier access to markets so as to earn higher incomes to enhance their livelihoods. This is to ensure that farmers have enough food surpluses to feed industries and also get markets for their produce in order to achieve food security in the country. Under the said project farmers and input dealers through the medium of cell phone technology, would be equipped with knowledge in database system to enable them help identify their market outlets to sell produce at reduced prices. The Country’s Representative from IFDC, Dr Kofi Debra said the rationale behind the conference is to discuss with participants how best farmers can get good market for their produce and also solicit views on the way forward. He said the project would afford farmers the opportunity to partner effectively with financial institutions and marketing companies for loans and other incentives. This, he noted, would help remove uncertainties between input dealers and farmers. In a presentation, the Managing Director of Imagead, an ICT Company, stressed the urgent need for farmers to be abreast with database system since the programme set to target about 50,000 farmers in the three regions of the north who after harvester encounter problems marketing their products. The programme he explained would help identify farmer population, identify buyers and processors, number of acreages and quantity of seeds to be planted on a particular piece of land among others. Representatives from the MOFA, Technoserve and the Savanna farmers’ Marketing Company SFMC, also took participants through their activities and programmes geared towards a common goal. Mr. David Azukpogo of the Navrongo –Bolgatanga Catholic Diocesan Development office NAVOCADO, said his outfit is poised to achieving sustainable livelihood for farmers in deprived regions of the country and entreated farmers to adopt new ways of farming to improve their crop yield in order to reduce poverty and hunger.
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